Hyperdimension Nepzaki ReStart1: Return of an APL
by Acallaris
Summary: "Alpha Player Link", this is the full title of the entities people call "APL". Although there were many APLs beforehand, only one has been recorded in history. However, what if I were to tell you that the story of the first recorded APL... Wasn't completely accurate to the events that were told?
1. Chapter 1

_Gods…what exactly are they? Some believe they are the entities that created our world, while others believe that they don't exist...kind of funny if you think about it. If those people who don't believe a God, say they don't believe in a God…who created our world? Who exactly gave us life? Who gave us a meaning, and why did they do so?_

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 _There are many times when I think to myself, "What if…there was a world where Gods lived with their people, a world where they formed relationships with them, a world where they gone through countless trials with them…_

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 _Fortunately, I may be one of the only people in this world who has actually found this alternate world. Although, I never came across it on my own free will, I was sort of…forced, but hey, you don't hear me complaining._

 _My name is Tamazaki; Trenton Tizius Tamazaki. This is the story of how I was pulled into a new world, and was given the responsibility of protecting a Goddess._

* * *

 _ **Hyperdimension Nepzaki Re;start1: Return of an APL**_

 _ **Dimension: B9-7A6 (Earth)**_

* * *

 _ **Location: Echomonty Memorial Highschool**_

 _ **Time: 1:22 PM**_

 _It was a clear day from what I can remember. Echomonty was one of the most well known highschools in the state, they say that those who enroll into the school, are destined to succeed in their lives… though, if you were in the school, you knew that saying was a complete lie._

 _For me, I was a average student. I got decent test scores, with sometimes me getting mastery on them. Although I wasn't really well known, I had a good reputation among some of the teachers and students in my school. The only club I was apart of was the martial arts club, but that was only because the club had invited me, apparently lots of people had mistakenly thought I was apart of the club._

 _That's only my school life however, there's still my personal life I have yet to talk about, but I'll get to that later. As for now, I have to tell you about how everything began, I want you to trust me when I say that things are about to get…interesting…_

* * *

"Alright, I want everyone to take your se-Brian, I swear to God I will shave all that hair off your head if you don't put that comb away!" _My Living Environment teacher was like this all the time, whenever she get angry with a student, she would say things that even most comedians would chuckle at._

 _The environment and atmosphere sort of varied depending on the class I was in. Some of my classes had everyone being silent, while others had everyone acting like monkeys trapped in a cage that was slowly being lowered into boiling water…that's pretty much the only example I could think of that was pretty accurate._

 _While my teacher went off on poor Brian, I took out the things necessary for this class and placed it on the table. The classroom was as big as any normal classroom. Since this was Living Environment, I had to share a table with someone. Fortunately, they were a close friend of mine and not some moron._

"Hey, Trent?" _My friend suddenly saying my first name out of nowhere caused me to wince. One thing about me is that I don't like my first name. There's just…something about "Trenton" that I hate, which is why I have everyone refer to me as Tamazaki. I'll save the "Trenton" story for another time, mainly because I don't want to put myself in a bad mood._

"Huh? Oh, what's up Cel?" _Is what I responded with. Although I don't have any problems making friends, I do have a bit of anxiety and a speech impediment. The anxiety is nothing major though, my palms just randomly get sweaty when I'm nervous about something._

"I just want to make sure, but…the Pep Rally IS today, right?" _Cel asked me in a nervous tone. Today was our winter Pep Rally, which was going to be held inside the Gymnasium. The only reason why Cel asked was because she's apart of the dance team, and wants to make sure that I'm there to see her dance._

"Yeah, that's right." _Is what I replied with. The Pep Rally starts next period, and usually, I have a free period. This means that I have the option to stay in school, or go home early…You most likely know what me and everyone else who had a free period picked then._ "Don't worry Cel, I promised you that I was going to stay and watch you dance."

"…Damn it Trent, you know how much it hurts when you make me blush." _Cel whispered. I don't know if it's obvious, but I like Cel. I'm not sure if she likes me back, or if she likes me as a friend since she's always giving me mixed signals. One day though, I'll have to confess to her, otherwise some other guy might come along and take her._ "Hey…after school, could we go to the park? There's one place that I want to show you."

"I'd love to go to the park with you. I don't have to get my brother from his school today since his friend's father is picking him up." _I told Cel. At times like these, I'm really glad that I know everyone in my neighborhood, otherwise I would've missed out on an opportunity like this._

"Great!" _Cel gave me her signature smile, which just caused a thousand butterflies to fly around in my stomach. I stared deep into her dark brown eyes as she stared into my light green eyes. It feels like I was staring into her eyes for almost an eternity, she must've felt the same way since she didn't look away._

"Trenton! Celia! What did I say about making love with each other using your eyes?!" _Our teacher dragged us out of the fantasy world we were in and back into reality. Celia and I both apologized to our teacher, she started class shortly after._

* * *

 _About halfway through class, our teacher assigned us some work we had to do independently. The whole classroom went completely silent as we worked. Living Environment was a subject I struggled with, but I managed to get through. As I was about to write my name on the sheet, I heard…something._

"Ta….ma….ki" _I faint voice had called my name. My initial reaction was to look around the classroom to see who was calling me, but no one was looking in my direction. Usually, when this type of stuff happens, someone is trying to mess with you and get on your bad side. Fortunately, I've dealt with this type of problem enough times to block it out completely._

"…ou…ar…he…on…" _I heard the same faint voice whisper. Now that I'm hearing this voice again, it doesn't sound like anyone in the classroom. I took a look around the classroom once more, but didn't see anyone who could have matched the voice. The thing that was really bothering me was that no one seemed to be noticing the voice, not even Celia heard the voice, yet she was sitting right next to me._

 _At moments like these, I would sort of start getting worried about someone calling out to me and saying things that I can't seem to understand. However, I'm in a classroom at the moment, if I were to suddenly start screaming and panicking now, people would look at me funny, and my reputation would drop dramatically. For now, I decided that it would be best for me to keep calm and stay quiet about the voices._

* * *

 **(20 minutes later…)**

 _The bell had finally rung, indicating that the period was over. I sighed and dropped my writing utensil on the table before leaning back in my seat. Shortly after the first two times of hearing that voice, it suddenly disappeared. I do want to know if this is some sort of new mental disease that only affects me out of the other seven billion people living in this world._

"Poke~" I immediately recognized Celia's voice as she poked my cheek. I looked over at her as she gave me her signature smile, which woke up the butterflies that were resting peacefully in my stomach. "I got to go now, I have to go get changed for the Pep Rally." _Celia was looking at me like she was expecting something from me, luckily it was pretty obvious to what she wanted._

"Cel, stop worrying, I already told you that I'm going to be at the Pep Rally" _I told her._ "If it makes you feel any better, I'll be somewhere that's close to the doors, that way you'll definitely be able spot me in the crowd of people sitting on the bleachers." _If you were able to see Celia's face, you would notice that her nervous expression had suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a relieved one._

 _Celia and I walked out of our Living Environment classroom, and quickly noticed a large group of people walking past us._ "Oh! That's the Dance Team…I guess I should go after them…" _Celia had said the last part in a sad tone. Since Celia was leaving, I automatically knew that she was going to start becoming nervous again once I was out of her sight. I took my attention off of the Dance Team and turned towards Celia, I then proceeded to pull her close into an embrace, catching her completely off guard._ "H-huh? T-Trent…?"

"It's going to be alright, I already know that you're going to do great out there." _I whispered into her ear. Celia has told me many times before that whenever I whisper into her ear, her problems to seem to fade away. I would say that this is just Celia trying to compliment me, but two other people have said the exact same thing, and both of them being my siblings._ "Do your best and try not to worry too much, okay?"

"Y-yeah…I'll do my best, for the Dance Team and…-" _Celia stopped herself at the end of her sentence, and moved over to my ear, causing my face to a little red._ "For you~" Celia _then placed her lips on my cheek for a few seconds, turning my face completely red. After that, Celia backed away from me and ran after the Dance Team, making sure not to look back. I placed my hand on the side of my face and watched Celia walk away with her friends._

"Did she just kiss you on the cheek?" _Some person I didn't really know walked up to me and asked this question. When it comes to people I don't know in this school, I act differently around them. If I know their the type of student who causes trouble a lot, I'll usually give them the death stare or tell them to back off._ "Piss off and mind your own business, you microscopic brained chimpanzee." _I told them before walking away._

* * *

 _It didn't take me long to get to the Gym, as not a lot of people were waiting around in the hallway. When I got into the Gymnasium, I noticed that nearly all of the bleachers were packed. Since it's November, it's starting to get pretty cold outside with winter around the corner. The weather today seemed to be a bit…extreme, with it being between 40 and 30 degrees, with weather like that, no one is leaving unless they have to._

 _I remembered telling Celia about sitting near the entrance, so I quickly surveyed the two bleachers that were right beside the doors. Luckily, there were a few openings that didn't seem or were going to be occupied. I walked over to bleachers and made my way to the very top and took my seat, I looked around to see if I was getting any stares from anyone, fortunately I wasn't and decided to relax for a bit._

 _Now that I'm thinking to myself, I really wonder what that voice in my head was all about. The first time it spoke to me, there was no doubt that it was trying to say my name. However, the next part seemed kind of fuzzy, as I didn't really understand what they were trying to say. There are three things that bothered me about the voice, one being that I wasn't really able to tell what gender the voice had matched, as it sort of sounded like a male and female voice._

 _The second thing that bothered me about the voice was that I didn't recognize it at all. I at first thought it was someone whispering to me in class, but it looked like no one was trying to communicate with me at all. My second thought was that someone was doing this from outside of the classroom and was trying to play some kind of prank on me, but if that were the case, someone like Celia would've heard the voice as well._

 _The third and final thing about that voice is….well, it sounded…troubled. Just by the tone of their voice, you could tell that they were worried about something. This thing…or person…I know that this might just be a possibility and I can just be spouting random nonsense, but…could they be calling…For help? Is it a possibility that their in some sort of danger and I'm the only person who can save them…?_

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 _Man, look at me spouting all of this nonsense. Some random voice is calling me for help because they're in some sort of danger? In my opinion, that would make a bad plot for any kind of story since it's so overused and worn out. I'm probably just a bit tired since I went to bed late last night, working on something that is apart of my personal life._

"Up next, give it up for Echomonty's Senior High Dance Team!" _I noticed that the principal of our school was speaking through a microphone. Apparently, I was so wrapped up with the voice in my head that I never noticed that the principal had did her speech, and the basketball team as well as the football teams was introduced. I should probably push this to the side for now and save this for another day…or week….yeah, you should know where this is going._

 _I looked over to my right to see the Dance Team making their way through the doors, sure enough, Celia was one of those people. The Dance Team made their way to the center of the Gymnasium and got into position, everyone stood perfectly still as they waited for the person who was in charge of the sound to play the music. After some time of waiting, the music finally began to play._

 _Everyone in the Gymnasium began to lose their composure and started to stand up and cheer, the same went for the people who were in front of me. I needed to make sure that Celia was able to see me in case she were to start getting nervous, so I stood up. I was able to get a clear view of Celia, although she wasn't facing my direction, I managed to see a smile on her face, which was enough to make me smile._

 _After a few more songs, the Dance Team had finished their part in the Pep Rally. All I could hear were claps coming from every direction, I couldn't even hear what our Principal was saying, despite it being over a microphone. The Dance Team was waving at everyone, Celia seemed to be looking around for me, so I decided to stand up on the bleachers, despite how dangerous it is, and try to catch her attention. Thankfully, she spotted me and started to smile and wave at me._

"Tama…zaki…" _I heard the same voice, which was accompanied by a sharp pain that ran through my head. I placed my hand on my head and noticed that my vision was starting to get blurry, I sat back down in my seat, with my hand still on my head…I heard it again…I heard the voice again, this time it was much clearer. "_ You…re….the….e"

"I need…some water." _I said to myself as I got up from my seat and made my way to the exit, not noticing Celia, who was wondering where I had disappeared to._

* * *

 _As I was walking through the hallways of the school, I quickly noticed that they were completely empty. The Pep Rally was usually for grades 9 through 12, meaning that 7_ _th_ _and 8_ _th_ _grades had to resume with their normal schedules. I expected to see kids from those grades wandering around, but nope, I saw no one, aside from me roaming the halls…Well, at least that's what I thought._

" _ **AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!**_ " _All at once, I was able to hear a large amount of females screaming from far behind me. This was accompanied by the sound of running footsteps, I turned to find out what was going on, but as soon as I did, I was blinded by something, pushed to the ground, and heard some large crashing sound that came from…some sort direction._

"What the Hell?!" _I shouted as I pulled the cloth off of me and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that I was on the floor, which wasn't really hard to figure out. The second thing I noticed was that there was a wrench on the floor, which seemed oddly suspicious. The third thing I noticed was the item used to blind me, it was a black sweatshirt._ "Wait a minute…isn't this sweatshirt-"

"There you are, you pervert!" _I heard a girl shout. I looked up and saw that I was being surrounded by girls, boys, teachers, and security guards…pretty much everyone in the Gymnasium._ "That's him! He's the one who did it!" _I would just like to say that I don't like where any of this is going, I'm practically being surrounded by almost 75 percent of the school right now, something like this is never a good sign._

"Um…Could someone explain what's going on here? Cause I'm not really seeing the picture…" _Is what I asked, but apparently, doing that seemed to make everything worse as everyone's disgusted stares turned into deathly ones. It appears that me talking isn't really going to help me I'm this situation I'm in, so I might as well keep my mouth shut until I need to use it._

"W-why?!" _A familiar voice asked. My head automatically turned towards the source, my eyes shortly met with Celia's, which were currently trying to hold back a large amount of tears. I couldn't help but look at Celia, my face was fully worry, yet I was still able to show that I was confused._ "W-why did you do it?! What was your r-reason for doing it?!"

"Cel, what are you-"

"DON'T CALL ME CEL, DAMM IT!" _Celia's voice had drastically risen. This wasn't the Celia I knew anymore, as she actually scared me when she raised her voice. Apparently, I did something that had caused all this to happen, but…What did I do exactly…?_ "Why Trenton?! **Why did you flood the girl's lockeroom**?!"

… _Was…I just accused…of flooding the girl's lockeroom…?_

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"W-Wha-…WWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTTT?!" _Is what I shouted out to the top of my lungs. This was ALLLLL just one giant misunderstanding! Why am I suddenly being accused of flooding the girl's lockeroom?! It doesn't make any sense! I left the Gymnasium over three minutes ago? How could I possibly have time to do that in the span of three minutes?!_

"W-Wait! This isn't what it looks-" _I tried to finish my sentence, but I felt a hand land on my shoulder. I turned my head to see one of the security guards shaking their head at me. All I did was let out a sigh of defeat and wait for my demise to come._

* * *

 _ **(3 hours later…)**_

 _I waited silently inside the Principal's office, I didn't want to make a sound, if I did, I know that things wouldn't end well for me. The Principal was sitting at her desk which was right in front me, so I was sort of too afraid to move a muscle. All I could do was wait silently inside the Principal's Office, and wait for-_

"Hello? Mrs. Reynolds?" _A certain someone popped their head into the room. I turned my head for a split second to make sure that it was who I though it was…turns out, it was who I thought it was…_ "I'm sorry it took me so long, my car is sort of in the repair shop right now, so I had to walk all the way to the school."

"It is fine Mrs…-"

"Oh, you don't have to call me Mrs. Tamazaki!" _The person walked into the room and closed the door behind them, they then came over and took the seat right next to me._ "I'm only Trenton's _older sister_ , so you can just refer to me as Tamazaki, or **Silver**."

 _This person is my goofball of an older sister, Silver. Out of me and my two siblings, Silver is the oldest out the three of us, with her being older than me by exactly two years…Why do I say exactly? Silver and I were both born on November 11_ _th_ _, but I was born two years after her. Our birthdays were only four days ago, so that makes me 18, and Silver 20._

"I see…If you don't mind, might I ask why you are here instead of your parents or Guardians?"

"Well…a few years ago, our parents had died on their way to Japan. There was a plane crash with no survivors…" Silver told the Principal. "Ever since then, I've taken the role of caring for my little brothers and acting as their Guardian." _Silver graduated from school two years ago and was even given a scholarship, but since she had to take care of me and my brother, she decided that her family is more important than her education, which is why she decided that she wasn't going to go to college._

"I think I might've saw something about that plane crash on the new-" _The Principal had had looked like she realized something._ "That crash…all that was found was a photo with the name "Tamazaki" written on the back…was that...?" _Silver had shook her head in response, meanwhile, I hadn't said or done anything this whole entire time. All I have been doing is listen to them talk about our dead parents._ "I am terribly sorry for your lost…"

"It's alright, but…" _Silver looked at me and noticed I wasn't really in the mood to say anything._ "Didn't you call me here to speak about Trenton?" _Here it comes! Once Silver hears this, she's going to look at me with a look of disappointment, I could already see it._

"Well, yes…" _The Principal fixed her glasses on her face before clearing her throat. From the looks of it, I don't think the Principal wanted to speak about this topic at all._ "Well…About three hours ago, our school had held its winter Pep Rally. After the Dance Team had went and did their performance, they went over to the lockeroom. About five minutes after they had left the Gymnasium, there was screaming coming from the lockeroom. As we were going to investigate what it was, someone wearing a sweatshirt had ran out of the lockeroom and had was trying to make a run for it. This person was followed by all the females in the lockeroom, who were all dripping wet. After some time, we found Trenton on the ground with the exact same sweatshirt in his hands, and a wrench that seemed to be brand new."

"If you're trying to say that my brother is the one who flooded the girl's lockeroom, then I'm going to have to say that I don't believe you." _I wasn't really surprised by this, whenever my brother and I were accused of doing something, Silver would always try to change the verdict to "Not Guilty", by stating valid facts about us that would usually embarrass us in the end._

"Ahh yes, I had a feeling that you would deny it." _I really didn't like the tone of voice she was using to talk to my sister, it just didn't seem…genuine, just way how she said it makes it sound like she was the one who was in charge of all of this…the thing with the lockeroom…not the school, if you were thinking that._ "We ran a fingerprint scan on the wrench, and found that the fingerprints that were on the wrench, matched Trenton's perfectly."

"W-wait…WHAAAT?!" _I couldn't stay quiet after hearing that, mostly because it doesn't make any sense! I never touched that wrench at all, yet they were able to find my fingerprints on it?! What the Hell is going on here?! Nothing is making any sort of sense! "I never even touched that thing! How were my fingerprints on it?!"_

"Trenton, lying isn't going to help you at this point of time." _The Principal really thinks I'm lying?! This is so damn ridiculous! Next, the Principal pulled out the same sweatshirt that the culprit was wearing, the only thing I did was wince at the sight of it._ "Now…Ms. Silver, does this sweatshirt belong to your brother?"

"Oh, I wouldn't really know." _Silver seemed a bit embarrassed by this and rubbed the back of her head._ "When it comes to shopping for clothes, I usually go by myself, the same goes with Trenton, who goes clothes shopping with our brother. I don't really check to see what type of clothes they buy, after all, two boys are living alone with one girl! Meaning privacy is sort of a big thing in our home…" _Once again, Silver was telling the truth. Me and my brother usually keep things that are related to males to ourselves, the same goes with Silver, who can't really tell us that kind of stuff since she's the only girl in the house._

"Very well then…Trenton? Let me ask you this question." _The Principal had turned towards me and was practically giving me a death glare._ "Trenton, this sweatshirt that I'm holding in my hand…does this happen to belong to you by any chance?" _I can only stare at the sweatshirt in silence, I didn't know what to do, or what to say. The Principal wasn't going to believe me, and at this point, I don't think Silver as either._

"…Yeah…That's my sweatshirt…" _I was basically muttering._ "But… I'm telling you! I never did it! I never flooded the girl's lockeroom! I would never be able to do something like that, especially with-"

"That's enough Trenton Tamazaki! These lies you're telling are not acceptable!" _The Principal had dropped my sweatshirt and took out a pen, she then began to jot something down on a paper, before saying something would cause my anger levels to go through the roof._ "Do you think that your parents would accept this kind of-"

 _The moment the Principal had mentioned my parents, I shot up out of my chair so fast that it fell over, and slammed my hand her desk, not caring about the coffee mug that I had just shattered, or the shards of glass that were in my hand._ "DON'T. YOU. FUCKING. DARE! BRING MY PARENTS INTO THIS, YOU UNSOPHISTICATED BITCH!"

 _There was a long pause after I had said that to the Principal. Mrs. Reynolds seemed to actually be afraid of me as she had backed up all the way to the corner of the room. Just in the corner of my eye, I was able to see the paper Mrs. Reynolds was writing on. There were two words that were written in giant bold letters, those words being "EXPULSION SLIP"… I don't think I need to tell you who's name was written on the paper in capital letters._

"…Silver, let's go…" _I picked up my sweatshirt from the floor and made my way over to the door, with Silver following close behind me._


	2. Chapter 2

**Hyperdimension Re;Start1: Return of an APL**

 **Dimension: B9-7A6 (Earth)**

 **Location: Echomonty Memorial High School**

 **Time: 6:04 PM**

"Tam-Tam…?" _My sister had said my name, unfortunately for her, I was too busy taking everything out of my locker to acknowledge her at all. I remember how upset I was just from everything that had happened, from being accused all the way to being expelled. I was sad and confused._

 _At the same time, I was angry, mainly because I was being accused of a crime I didn't commit, and the fact that my old Principal had brought up my parents, who were dead. If she hadn't asked Silver about our parents, then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so riled up earlier and smashed her mug._

 _I was really messed up, and I knew that talking to someone would just make things worse for me. This is why I decided to just ignore my sister's words, and stuffed all my belongings into my bag until my locker was completely empty. I didn't even bother taking one last look at my locker, I slammed the door shut and started to walk away._

"Tam-Tam!" _Silver had once again called out to me, but once again, I was ignoring her words. Aside from a few custodians and security guards, the both of us were the only ones inside the school, all the other students had gone home for the weekend, only for them to come back a few days later… That wouldn't be the case for me though._

* * *

 **Location: Echomonty Memorial High School Grounds**

 **Time: 6:09 PM**

 _With the amount of force I put into the door, I'm pretty sure that I almost broke it. I had pushed opened the door, and it had practically flown open with a great amount of force. It wasn't going to matter if I broke the door or not, I'm pretty sure the school was going to send a bill for the damage done to the locker room, and as far as I knew, that door was going to be the least of their problems._

"Hey!" _I had finally stopped in my tracks and was forced to acknowledge my sister, who had run in front of me and was staring me in my face, she didn't look too happy, but I'm sure my expression was much terrifying than hers at the moment._

"...What do you want…" _There was practically no life in my voice, anything I had said made it sound like I was being possessed by something. I just didn't care anymore about anything, and to me, It felt as if my life had practically fallen before my very eyes._

"...Calm down." _Was what my sister had said. Although I couldn't see my face, I could sort of imagine how much of an angry look I had. Knowing my sister, she must have thought that I was going to go off somewhere and just punch something or someone._ "You're mad, Tam-Tam. You just need to stop and try to calm down."

 _At that time, I remember feeling more angrier than I was before. Silver just wanted me to stay calm, yet she didn't realize that I was not only labeled as a pervert among the whole school, I was also expelled from my senior year._ "How...The HELL do you expect me to stay calm?! Were you paying attention to anything that happened back there?!"

"Of course I have, you know that I always pay attention to the events that take place in that school." _I don't know if it was self-explanatory or not, but Silver used to attend Echomonty back when she was in school. Despite her personality of being a giant goofball, she took school very seriously. I guess you could say she's the reason for why I'm so well known around the school._ "And because I always pay attention to everything that happens at that school, I'm able to tell whether or not something is out of place."

"Silver, if you're trying to say that you believe me, then just cut the crap." _I started to walk again, I walked around my sister who was just an obstacle in my path._ "It doesn't matter if you say you believe me, it won't change the events that occurred at all."

"...Would rather me say something like, "I don't believe you, you sick pervert"?"

 _Silver's words had caused me to stop walking. Those words practically mean nothing to me at all now, but back then, when Silver said that, a few tears ran down my face and onto the floor. I heard my sister's footsteps from behind me, moments later, her arms were wrapped around my waist and her head was pressed against my back._ "Of course you wouldn't...Besides, I love you too much to say such an awful thing to you…"

 _It's pretty difficult to get me to cry, Hell, getting me to tear up was a task by itself. But at that point in time, I was feeling so many different emotions, that it was practically impossible for me to keep all of them intact._

"Now... let's go home. You can let it all out once we're home alone, okay?" _Silver whispered into my ear, in which I slowly shook my head._ "I'll always be there for you…"

 _That statement...I didn't think much of it at the time, aside from Silver being a caring sister. But looking back at...I never even thought that those words would foreshadow an event that had yet to come._

* * *

 _If I remember correctly, I believe our house was 2 to 3 miles away from the school. I think I asked Silver if we could call an Uber, but she most likely said no because I remember that we had to walk a long distance._

 _Looking back on it, this was probably one of the best ways for me to clear my mind, which was probably why Silver wanted us to walk instead of drive. My mind was so cloudy when I was at the school, but as we walked, I was able to think more clearly._

 _We came to a crosswalk that leads to two separate directions. One of which would lead us right back home, while the other just so happened to be the park. The same one that Celia wanted us to go to after the Pep rally ended… but that never did happen._

 _While we were waiting for the light to turn red to cross the street, I was looking over at the park. In my mind, I was thinking that there was a slight chance that Celia was still there and waiting for me, but at the same time, something was telling me she wasn't._

"...Hey sis?" _I looked over at Silver, who was sitting down on one of the benches._ "Could you wait here for a bit? There's something that I want to check on in the park."

"Okay, Tam-Tam." _Silver grinned at me._ "Take your time and go do what you got to do."

 _I'm not sure why, but I felt like Silver had been reading my mind that entire time. I've told Silver about Celia countless times in the past, they've even met in person. So it wasn't like Celia was a person that nobody in my family had seen before, Silver and my brother have met her before._

 _I managed to muster up a smile even though I was still feeling down. When I got the chance, I crossed the street and walked over to the park. I looked back at Silver who was on the other side of the street, and she waved at me. I never would've thought that that was going to be the last time I saw my sister… alive._

* * *

 **Location: Park**

 **Time: 6:29 PM**

 _The park was one that my family and I had gone to countless times throughout our lives. Because we've been here so many times, we see a lot of friendly faces. Hell, I'm pretty sure this was where and how my brother met his best friend._

 _The park was very big, it was so big that you could most likely see it on Google Maps if you looked up this general area. Although, some parts of this park were dying, which made me sad. I grew up with this place, so the fact that it was slowly dying had upset me… I'm still kind of upset today, actually._

 _I didn't know where Celia had wanted to meet, she probably was going to take me to the place she wanted to show me, but I wasn't sure where it was. I knew where practically everything was in that park though, so if I searched long enough, I would have eventually found her… that's if she was in the park, that is._

 _I walked around the park for a bit, admiring the somewhat beautiful scenery, while also looking for signs of Celia. I don't remember much of what happened while I was searching, but… there was one thing that I remember very well._

"Stop being such a wimp and give us the bike!"

 _In the distance, I had heard shouting. I didn't necessarily know what was going on, and to be honest, I was planning on ignoring it. Something was telling me that I should at least see what was going on, and so I went over to see what was all the commotion about. Let's just say… I'm glad that I checked._

"The bike isn't even his, It's mine. So stop picking on him and leave us alone!"

 _There were four guys who were bullying these two boys. One was 12, and the other was 9… you'll see why I know their ages in just a bit. Those guys were trying to take the bike that the two boys had with them, they seemed as if they were the same age or older than the 12-year-old._

"Come on, kid. You promised us back at school that you would let us borrow that bike for a while." _One of the bullies said._ "Why are acting like we never made a deal at all?"

"Why do you always take my silence as a, "yes"? " _The older boy asked._ "I'm not giving you the bike, so why don't go and fu-"

 _The kid never even got to finish his sentence before one of the bullies punched him in the stomach. The boy had fallen to his knees and had started coughing. One of the other bullies then took the bike the younger boy was holding onto and pushed him to the ground._

"You should've just given us the bike when we asked you. I wouldn't have had to sock you in the gut just now." _The guy who was apparently the leader of that group of bullies said._ "But you came through at the end, so I guess it all doesn't matter now."

 _Just like that, they walked away. They had just stolen a bike from these two boys and had felt good about themselves. As all of that was taking place, my blood was practically starting to boil. When the kid had punched the boy in the stomach, that's when I reached my limit._

 _I ended up following the bullies and was able to cut them off before they reached the exit. I still don't know why I didn't jump in during when those kids were in the middle of getting bullied, that was just a poor performance on my part, to be honest._

"Excuse me." _I walked up to the bullies and they stopped when they saw me._ "Sorry for bothering you, but I just wanted to say that you have a really nice bike."

"Oh, uh… thanks!" _The personalities of these kids had done a complete 180. They were acting like they had never done anything wrong in their lives at all, which had just made me even more angrier._

"Mind if I ask you where you got that bike?" _I was prepared for them to come up with some bullshit answer, but no matter what they were about to say, I was prepared with a response._ "My brother recently got his bike stolen from him, so I wanted to see what my options were."

"Oh, this…?" _They weren't prepared to answer my question, and if I hadn't witnessed the event that had just taken place, then I would've thought that they were being really shady._ "My uh… big brother and sister bought for me! That's right!"

 _Those responses were really pathetic if you ask me. They would've worked with someone else if they had asked the kids the same question I asked them. However, what he had said sounded very familiar._

"Oh, really? That's interesting…"

"Hey, uh… can I ask you something, mister?" _One of the other bullies spoke up._ "When did uh… your little brother's bike get stolen, just out of curiosity…?"

 _Although I hated each and every one of those kids, I had to give that kid in particular props. He knew where this was going, and wanted to be sure. He was definitely brighter than those other kids, that's for sure._

"Oh… It's funny, actually. His bike actually got stolen just a few minutes ago… and now that I think about it, that bike that you have here seems a lot like the one that got stolen."

 _The moment I had said that they instantly knew that they were in some deep shit. They all were smart enough to actually piece the pieces together and figure out that I was related to one of the two kids that they had just robbed._

"Oh, well you see what happened was-"

 _The kid who had punched the other kid in the stomach was trying to defend his actions, but let's be real here: Was that really going to help him at all? Instead of letting him finish, I ended up letting out a majority of my pent up anger on him and… punched him in the face._

 _I understand that he wasn't even a teenager yet, but with everything that had just happened, I didn't care about what was right or wrong. I was angry, and those kids weren't helping my mood at all, they were only making it worse._

 _So, I had punched the kid and he had fallen to the floor. I can't remember if I had broken his nose or gave him a black eye. I know, those are two different things and it's sad that I'm not able to remember which one I had given him._

 _The kid's friends had rushed to his side and were helping him up. I remember… that look of terror he had on his face. The kid looked like he was going to burst out into tears, but I was so fed up that I didn't care if he started to cry._

"I want all of you to listen to me…" _My voice had become surprisingly deeper than it originally was._ "If I find out that you're hurting my brother or Caem ever again… I'm going to do more than make you bleed. Do you understand?"

 _All of the kids were afraid of me, not a single one them was going to talk back to me. All of them shook their heads at the same time, which meant that they were fully aware of the consequences that would follow them for going against what I said._

"... Get out of my sight."

 _The bullies soon took off running, they hadn't even bothered to look back at me. They had left the bike, but I would've honestly been more surprised that they had enough balls to take the bike with them as they were running._

 _You know… this is something I think I can laugh at now. When those kids were running away, I was secretly hoping that they would get hit by a car. Let me just tell you that half of my wish came true… someone was going to get hit by a car, but… it was someone I didn't want._

* * *

"Hey, did one of you kids lose a bike?" _I made my way all the way over back to the two kids. The two of them looked at me and saw that I had the bike with me and their frowns had turned into smiles._

"Tam!"

 _The kid who had called me, "Tam" was my little brother, Alex if you hadn't figured out by now. Out of the three of us, Alex is the youngest with him being 12 years old at the time. Even though he was only 12, he was pretty smart and was good with computers._

 _The kid who was with Alex was his best friend, Caem. The boy was only 9 years old at the time and knew more than he leads on, yet he was hanging out with a 12-year-old like my brother. Though their ages never really bothered either of them, they were still really close and I'm sure nothing was going to get in the way of that._

"I saw everything that happened…" _I hugged both my brother and Caem._ "Are the both of you alright? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, we aren't…" _Caem shook his head._ "But… I'm sad that we weren't able to stand up to those guys. We only ended up getting pushed around…"

 _Caem has always wanted to be stronger, and… I think that his wish has come true today. But back then, he's always felt weak and wished that he didn't-... Ah, I think I might be saying a bit too much. Forget that last part then._

"Come on Caem. Cheer up!" _Alex tried his best to reassure his friend when he was down during times like these._ "Don't worry about stuff like this, or else it'll just eat you up from the inside. One day, we'll be strong enough to face those guys and win. I just know it!"

"Yeah, I know. But…" _I'm sure that Caem was about to say something negative again, but he most likely resisted the urge. "_ No… you're right. We'll get them someday!"

 _I really admired their enthusiasm. But I didn't exactly know that what my brother said was going to stick with me for a very long time, even if it wasn't directed towards me._

 _After all of that had been taken care of… I had seen her. I noticed her looking down at the three of us from the top of one of the hills in the park. I remember her facial expression very clearly as I looked up at her… She looked like she didn't have a single care in the world._

"Oh, hi Celia!" _My brother was waving to her. "Did you see what my brother just did? He got my bike back from those guys who were bullying me, didn't you see?"_

"I sure did, Alex. He really is a… Hero."

 _When she had said that, I was immediately able to pick up on the sarcasm that was in her voice… that had told me that she was still upset about what happened. Of course, she was though, why did I think that she would suddenly be over the whole thing?_

"... Hey, could you guys go to Silver? She's just across the street from the entrance." _I told the two boys._ "Celia and I have something we need to talk about."

 _Celia seemed like she didn't really want to have a full blown conversation with me, but she didn't say anything._

"Oh, okay…" _Alex started to wave to Celia._ "Bye Celia!"

 _Alex and Caem had then gone on their way to meet with my sister. That had just left me alone with Celia. I remember how quiet it had gotten when the two of us had stared at each other from our designated places… It was all gone… That little world that the both of us had entered whenever we locked eyes… it had left without a trace of where it could be._

 _I climbed the to the top of the hill and sat next to Celia without even asking her if she wanted me next to her. Then again, she would've said something as I was making my way up there, so I guess she was alright with it._

 _I'm pretty sure that we sat there for a bit in silence. I was trying to figure out what to say-... No, I already knew what I wanted to say, I was just having trouble getting the words out._

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"Huh?"

 _Celia didn't repeat herself, and she didn't have to. I had heard what she said the first time. I guess that was her way of making conversation… Though, I'm sure that she didn't really care._

"I'm not sure… I haven't even had time to process everything that's happened." _I had told her._ "... Celia, please. I want you to-"

"How am I supposed to believe you, Trenton?!" _There it was… She was starting to act like how she acted towards me when they caught me back at the school._ "I…I saw you down there! What do you take me for, some idiot?!"

"No, of course not! You're very smart, Celia!" _I was trying my hardest to calm her down, but it wasn't working. Everything I said just made her more and angrier with me._ "But I never did it, I swear! I was in the gymnasium the whole time-"

 _I had realized immediately after I said that that I was lying. I wasn't in the gym the whole time, I had left towards the end of the Pep Rally to get some water. It was too late for me to correct myself though, Celia had already taken what I said into account._

"Not only are you a pervert… but you're a liar?" _Celia seemed to have had enough of me and was starting to get up._ "Trenton, why won't you just tell me the truth? I wouldn't be so mad at you if you just confessed, and the school wouldn't have had to expel you!"

 _You know… I never really realized this until now, but… How did Celia know that the school expelled me? I hadn't even mentioned it to her at all… unless she had taken a guess, in which she was right._

"Celia, I swear to God that it wasn't me!"

 _No matter what I said, she wasn't listening to me. Nothing that was coming out of my mouth was getting to her at all, she just thought that I was some sort of… monster._

 _Celia had tried walking away from me, but I had grabbed her arm. It was probably a bad idea on my part considering the circumstances, but I never thought about what I was doing._

"Let go of me!" _She was trying her best to escape my grasp, but I wasn't letting go of her._

"Celia, please just listen to me for one minute!" _Now that I think about it, I was definitely coming onto her a bit too strongly._

"I said, LET. GO!"

… _She slapped me. Without any hesitation, she just… slapped me. That was the first time she had ever physically harmed me in all the time we had known each other… and it hurt, not just physically._

 _What surprised me to this, and it still does to this very day was that...she didn't even mean to do it. It was just something that her body subconsciously did on its own. But… I didn't know any better at the time because I was… young and stupid. I thought that she had hit me on purpose, and never actually realized it until much later down the line that it was an accident._

 _I stood there idly, with my hand on my cheek. I could feel it burning from the slap that Celia had given me. Meanwhile, Celia was processing what she had just done to me. Before she could say anything to me, my body started moving on its own and… I walked away._

 _I expected to get aggressive and angry at her. I expected to get upset and start to break down into tears. None of those things happened, I walked away from her and never said a single thing about it. Celia never even tried to run after me, she was watching me walk away and never said anything to me either._

… _That's when it happened. That's when the event that would send me down into a deep state of depression would happen. That's when I soon realized that the world… hated me. That it would do anything to make my life a living Hell…_

* * *

 _As I was just walking aimlessly throughout the park, I wasn't even going to the exit. As I was becoming somewhat aware of my surroundings, the sounds of tires screeching echoed throughout the area._

 _My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to head to the exit of the park to see what could've been happening. As I was running, I could hear the shouts of people coming from outside of the park as well as sirens._

"Tamazaki! Tamazaki!"

 _I soon noticed a kid running towards me in the distance, that kid was Caem. I didn't get why he was running so fast… at least, that was until he told me what had happened._

"Caem, what's with all the commotion?" _I asked him. "_ Did an accident-"

"Silver and Alex got hit by a truck!"

 _I immediately froze up after hearing those words come out of Caem's mouth. What he had said replayed itself over and over inside my mind until I was able to come up with a reply to his statement._ "...What?"

"We were crossing the street while the light was red, but someone in a truck had kept on driving even when the light was red! Alex pushed me out of the way, and right when the truck was about to hit him, Silver shielded him and both of them went flying!"

 _So much had gone through my mind during that moment alone. The pain I felt in my stomach had practically multiplied itself. My body started to move on its own again, but this time, it knew where it wanted to go._

* * *

 **Location: Crosswalk**

 **Time: 7:32 PM**

 _The moment I left the park, people were crowded on the sidewalk. All of them were looking towards the center of the street but weren't exactly allowed to move because of the yellow tape that had been placed._

 _I started to push past the people in the crowd so I could see with my own two eyes what had happened. As soon as I got to the front… I almost had a stroke._

"Silver… Silver, this isn't funny! You're just playing another one of your games, right? Please tell me you are!"

 _Right in the middle of the street, past all of the officers… were two individuals. It was my brother and my sister. Even from a distance, I was able to see how lifeless my sister's body was as she was lying in my brother's arms._

"Silver…? Silver…!" _Alex had begun to cry._ "Come back! Come back, please!"

 _I couldn't take it anymore, I couldn't just watch from a distance any longer. I ducked under the tape and ran over to Alex and Silver as fast as I could. I don't know why the police didn't stop me, maybe they had known that I was family and had let me do what I wanted._

 _As soon as I got to Alex and Silver, my brother threw himself onto me and cried into my shirt. All I could do was caress him as he cried, I couldn't say anything, even if I wanted to. No words were coming out of my mouth._

 _I took my sister's hand while my brother continued crying, and I had started to shake. Her hand was cold and stiff, I felt no warmth or pulse in her body at all._

 _That's when it hit me._

"No… No… No, No, No, No…" _I started saying repeatedly. "_ Silver… Silver… SILVER!"

 _I had finally realized that… my sister was dead._


	3. Chapter 3

**Hyperdimension Re;Start1: Return of an APL**

 **Dimension: B9-7A6 (Earth)**

 _From the moment of Silver's death to the funeral, everything had completely gone to absolute shit. All of the events that took place from that moment on had happened too quickly, and unfortunately, I was able to keep up._

 _After Silver had died, she had been rushed to the Hospital. Although I knew that she was dead, deep down, I didn't want to believe that was true at all, I wanted to get to the Hospital as fast as I could and see the official results… It was confirmed she was dead, no doubt about it._

 _My brother had come with me to the Hospital. I didn't want him there originally because he's only 12. Caem's mother and father were supposed to take him back to their place for some time, but Alex was practically putting up a fight and wouldn't let them take him… so I just let him come along._

 _We were there for… hours, yet it felt like days. Alex just wouldn't stop shaking, and couldn't control his urges to cry. Myself on the other hand… I was stuck in the past. I was thinking about all the good things that my sister had done for not only me and my brother, but for the rest of the world._

 _She was the reason why I had such a presence at Echomonty. She was the reason I wanted to be best I could be. Silver was my motivation, regardless of her being a giant goofball a majority of the time. At one point, my mind had suddenly started replaying the moment where Silver acted like the whole locker room was my fault, but then hugged me and told that she loved me too much to accuse me of something like that._

 _But then it hit me. I had a thought that had caused me to lose it. I pretty much just lost all control of myself and ran out of the room, completely forgetting that my brother was there too, That thought that I had… Was that this whole thing was my fault._

 _Silver's death could have been entirely avoided if I hadn't been at the wrong place at the wrong time. If I had just gotten enough sleep the night before, then I wouldn't have been hearing that voice call out to me. I wouldn't have had gotten expelled from school. Celia wouldn't have hated me so much…_

 _As soon as that thought reached me, I came to the realization that the world hated me. It wanted nothing to do with me and was going to try it's hardest to reject me the best it could. The world was trying it's best to break me down in the quickest, yet the most efficient way it could._

 _We went home shortly after that and had stayed up all night. Neither Alex or myself could sleep at all. We were afraid that something would happen when we slept, but… if you asked me at that point in time, I would've told you that dying right then and there didn't seem so bad._

 _The next day, Caem and his family, as well as a lot of our neighbors came over to give their condolences. Most of them actually stayed for the whole day to make sure that Alex and I would be okay. Caem's parents then actually offered… no, they didn't offer, they were going to pay for the funeral service, and they weren't going to let us stop them._

 _Despite Silver dying in Alex's arms, I felt like Alex was more mentally stable then I was. Don't get me wrong, we were both in bad condition, but I was having a hard time doing… anything. The will to do anything had just left me, and I was just lazing about… allowing all those unpleasant thoughts to run through my mind and do as they please._

 _It didn't take long for people to notice my behavior, and force me to go and see someone about this. So, I ended up going to the doctor, and to no one's surprise, I was diagnosed with depression._

 _To be completely honest, everything from me being diagnosed with depression to the funeral is an absolute blur. You would most likely have to ask Alex about that because I was out of it, and I'm having a hard time remembering what even happened._

 _So, the funeral came along. There were so many people there, I think that the visitor book you have to sign when you enter actually ran out of pages. People from all over came, whether it people I knew, people Alex knew, or people Silver knew. There were so many people._

 _There were two people who came that I wasn't expecting to come. One of them was Caem's cousin, Kashi, who was actually studying abroad. I was surprised that he actually managed to make it to the service on such a short notice. I didn't really have a lot of friends at the time, as I was one of those people who only considered someone who's been with you during the hardest of times as a friend. Kashi… was one of those people, he was someone who I would be able to call a friend and lean on whenever I was having a hard time._

 _The other person who came… was Celia. I never expected her to actually come, and to be honest, I didn't want her to come. Seeing her would have just made my mental state even worse than it already was. I had a feeling that Alex had invited her, but I couldn't blame him. He didn't know what happened, and he didn't need to know. We had only made eye contact twice during the funeral, but we never said a word._

 _The service had started after an hour of talking with people. Alex and I had to sit at the very front where Silver's open casket was. I will admit… she looked beautiful. They had done an excellent job with her clothing and makeup._

 _Alex was silent the whole time, and never talked to anyone, not even me. He was also looking a little pale as well, but I didn't notice… though, I didn't know that would mean something else was going to happen that would absolutely shatter me._

 _The service went on as how normal funeral services did. We sang songs, read the Bible, prayed, and everything else. People went up and said a few things about our sister, and how they wished me and my brother the best and would keep in touch._

 _Eventually, it was time for the service to end and for Silver's casket to be closed. We wouldn't see her face until the morning of the burial, where they would allow us to look at her one last time. Although something like this would never happen, I was thinking during the funeral that this would be one of those times where the person in the casket woke up and wasn't actually dead… though that never did happen._

 _We all stood and sang one last song. Alex and I were the only ones who weren't singing, we were staring down at Silver. She looked as if she was only sleeping, and seemed like she was at peace… though, that had just made me feel worse._

 _When they were done singing, we had said one last prayer, and then the staff had come to close the casket. The funeral service was over, and it was time for repast… at least, I thought it was. The moment they closed the coffin, Alex had let go of my hand and fell to the ground. This started a bit of a panic in the room, and when I was going to pick him up… I screamed. I had screamed for someone to call the ambulance._

 _When that had happened, I had come to my senses for a short time. Why did I scream? Well… Alex's body was starting to get cold, and I was afraid that he had just suddenly… left me. The ambulance arrived almost immediately and took him to the Hospital. I would never have thought that I would be in the back of an ambulance truck 2 times in one month, the first time being with my sister._

 _When we got to the Hospital, they took Alex off somewhere and told me that I would have to come back the next day. Although I argued with them that I had to be with him, they just wouldn't let me and were on the verge of calling security to escort me out of the premise._

 _Caem's parents dropped me home, and Kashi and Caem ended up staying with me that night so they could stop me from doing anything stupid. The next morning was the burial, yet I didn't get any sleep. I didn't want to sleep, not with those new thoughts that had entered my mind, and were just getting to know the old ones._

 _I was sick with worry, I was afraid that when I went back to the Hospital, they would tell me that my brother was dead. I didn't want to think about it, but I just couldn't stop all these scenarios and memories from playing in my head. I've thrown up multiple times, and because I wasn't eating… you could probably imagine how sick I was feeling._

 _The burial eventually happened, and I wasn't prepared to say goodbye. I remember when we went back to the funeral home, I just couldn't stop hugging and crying into my sister's lifeless body that was lying in the casket. Once I had finally let go of Silver, they closed her casket, and we started to make our way to the cemetery._

 _Although there weren't as many people as there was the day before, there was still a lot who came to the burial. They all rested flowers on top of the coffin and lowered it. Throughout the whole time, I kept on shouting things such as, "I love you" and "Don't go". You wouldn't believe that amount of people who had to hold me back._

 _After the burial, a good number of the people went back to our house for a gathering. I didn't go back home, but I to the Hospital instead. I was by myself because they most likely wouldn't let anyone aside from family see Alex._

 _When I got there, I was prepared to hear that Alex has died. I was prepared to hear that the only reason left I had to live had suddenly vanished. I was prepared to hear the world tell me how much it hated me and how it wanted me gone… but fortunately, it didn't come to that. The doctors told me that Alex was alive and in stable condition, but… he had something called, "Broken Heart Syndrome"._

 _From what I remember, Broken Heart Syndrome is something most common in females who I think are over 50 years old? Which I still think is weird since Alex is male, and was 12 years old at the time. I heard that it can happen in males, but it's rarer. There were a lot of causes for Broken Heart Syndrome, and one of them was the Death of a loved one…_

 _They told me that it's possible to die from this syndrome, but they said Alex was stable, so he should've been fine. That was probably the first time I had gotten good news in a while. Even though he was stable, they told me that I couldn't visit him just yet and that I should come back in when they were able to make sure that he would remain stable._

* * *

 **Location: Tamazaki Household**

 **Time: 11:45 PM**

 _I was alone… everyone had gone back to their individual homes. Kashi and Caem were supposed to stay with me again that night, but they were taking a long time to come back with their overnight bags._

 _I didn't like the silence, but at the same time, that's all I wanted. I appreciated that everyone came to visit me and my brother during our time of need, but hearing the same things over and over again starts to get… tiring._

 _I was in my room for a majority of the time people were there. Some were going to come back the next day and do the same things they did that evening. I had to leave the door open so people could see me in my room. Everyone thought that I was going to do something… and they were right._

 _If I had found out that Alex had died in the Hospital, I was prepared to end my life. The motivation I had to do anything had already left me, I already hated myself for being the cause of all this, and I was sure nobody wanted me around. Now that I think about it… nobody knew about the accident that happened at that school other than Silver, Celia, and myself._

 _As I was lying there, I felt the urge to cry once again, but… no tears were coming out. I wasn't even surprised I had run out of tears, I had been crying every second of the day after all._

 _It felt like an eternity since I had last slept. I finally felt the sleepy sensation overtake me, something I didn't really care for. I didn't care if I slept or not, I didn't care if I ate food or not, I didn't care if I showered or not. I didn't care for anything._

"... Tamazaki."

 _I heard it again. The same voice that I heard was practically the trigger for all the events that took place. This time, it was much clearer than it was when I heard back at school for the first time, as I was actually able to understand what it was saying._

 _Once I heard the voice again, I felt like my blood was starting to boil. I didn't know what the voice was at the time, but I had thought that it had come to haunt me and blame me for everything that had just happened._

"You… are the one-"

"SHUT… THE FUCK UP!" _I opened my eyes and shouted as loud as my lungs would let me._ "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU'RE THE REASON WHY MY SCHOOL EXPELLED ME. YOU'RE THE REASON WHY CELIA HATES ME. YOU'RE THE REASON WHY MY BROTHER IS IN THE HOSPITAL. YOU'RE THE REASON WHY MY SISTER IS FUCKING DEAD! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU ANYMORE, SO GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!"

 _I never realized that I was standing up at that point. I was so tired to get up and out of my bed before, yet I suddenly had a burst of energy. Knowing me, I probably wasn't going to do anything with that energy and I was going to go and lie back down on my bed and let whatever happen, happen._

 _The voice had gone quiet, and at the time, I thought that it had finally decided to leave me alone and let me continue doing whatever I wanted to do with my life. But no, that's not how it worked… That wasn't how it worked at all._

 _Moments later, the ground had started to shake. I had thought that it was an earthquake, but once again, I was wrong. It wasn't an earthquake, but something much more abnormal. The ground was shaking so much that I had lost my footing and bumped my head onto my bedframe and fell unconscious._

 _Now, some people might actually call me weak for falling unconscious after hitting my head against my bedframe, but I should remind you that my body was in pretty bad condition at the time since I was really taking care of it properly._

 _When I had finally came to, it was… I think half past midnight or so. I felt a little bit refreshed, but I was still feeling like total crap, and I was still feeling pretty shitty. I tried to get up but I immediately fell back down._

"Please… Exit the room, and head directly to your backyard." _The same voice had returned to me, and I immediately felt like screaming at it once again._ "And please do not shout for now… I will explain all in due time."

"Explain all in due time my ass!" _I growled at the voice… though I will admit that I wasn't being very menacing._ "Why do you want me to go to my backyard, huh?! Do prefer being outside when you're breaking someone down mentally and emotionally?!"

 _There wasn't any response, and I was angry that I wouldn't get a response from the voice until I had actually done what it told me to do. Without even giving it a second thought, I stormed out of my room and made my way to our backyard. I'll tell you this now… I was not prepared to see what I saw when I went out there._

"Okay! I'm outside! What the Hell do you want now, and why do you keep-" _That's when I noticed it. That's when I noticed the one thing that would start all of this. The one thing that would not only change how I see the world… but how I would see myself._ "... Holy Shit.."

 _Right there, right in the middle of our backyard was a crater. That crater was made by a meteor that had shattered into pieces. And in the middle of that crater… was a floating Heart. A floating brown heart to be exact. It didn't look normal, but that's not because it was brown, but because it was floating._

"Take it…!" _The voice almost sounded demanding as it told me to take the Heart. I almost didn't want to do it considering that this voice didn't really make a great first impression, and was still making my blood boil from that very moment._ "You need to take it, Tamazaki… it's the only way you can save-"

"The only way I can save what?!" _I was shouting again, despite him telling me to not shout._ "You've already fucked up my life and caused all of these shitty things to happen to me! I'm not taking orders from you!"

 _There was silence once again, but I already knew that I didn't scare off the voice. They had just gone silent for some reason, and I don't think that was because I was shouting at them._

 _I looked at the Heart again, and my body immediately started to move on its own. At that point, I wasn't fazed by this at all. My body had been doing its own thing since Silver had died, so it honestly wasn't anything new to me._

 _Before I knew it, I was standing right in front of the Heart. I should also add that as I was looking at the Heart, I felt as if I could see an image of what looked to be a map. What was it a map of? Well, considering where this is all going… it should be fairly obvious._

 _I then decided to grab the Heart. Not even moments after I grabbed the Heart did I have some sort of weird feeling in my body. I was even trying to fight it though, I was just letting nature take its course… at least, I thought it was natures doing_

"You are the one… the one who will strive to make their world one that hopes for a better tomorrow." _As this voice was talking to me, I felt light. Like as if all past events were in the… past. They didn't bother me anymore… but that wasn't a good thing, for more reasons than one. I'll have to get into these much later._ "It is your time, Trenton Tamazaki. Step forth, and claim your title as an Alpha Player Link, and return to Gamindustri!"


	4. Chapter 4

_Immediately after I heard that voice, I'm pretty sure that I blacked out… though, I'm not entirely sure if it was immediate. I remember a ton of multicolored lights that were practically blinding me and a really warm yet uncomfortable sensation inside my body._

 _After that, I'm sure I blacked out. I wish I could go into full detail about how I was feeling, because I'm sure there was more to that part of the story, but my memory of back then is still really fuzzy and I'm practically remembering things as I go on._

 _When I was unconscious, I started to see things that looked unfamiliar to me. I want to say that I was dreaming, but everything felt so realistic that it couldn't have been a dream. But looking back on it… I'm pretty sure I was having a vision of events that had yet to come._

 _Once the visions had come to an abrupt stop, I found myself standing in a dark void. I remember looking straight ahead for what felt like hours, when it was probably only minutes, and then holding out my hands and looking at them. At the time, I assumed that it was just very dark, but once I was able to see my hands, a much darker thought popped up in my head._

"Did… Did I die?" _When I asked myself that, I'm pretty sure that I didn't even feel confused. I guess I was… I don't know, happy or relieved? Considering the events that had happened prior to the current one, it shouldn't really come as a surprise as to why I'm grateful._ "...Yeah, that's probably it. I'm dead, and I'm going to be forced to remain in this state of limbo for the rest of eternity, aren't I?"

 _I still can't believe that I said stuff like that back when I was depressed. If you look at me today and then at me back then, you can see a clear difference in our personalities. Hell, I'm pretty sure there were some physical differences as well since I wasn't taking care of my body at all._

"You have an interesting way of thinking…" _In the void of nothingness, I heard a voice. It was a male voice, but it had a sense of familiarity to it. Despite that, I wasn't able to link the voice to anyone I knew._ "But I can assure you that you're not dead."

"... Who are you?" _Most people would probably look around for the source of the voice, but I didn't even bother. I had known that cliche far too well to fall for it and kept on looking straight ahead._ "And if I'm not dead, then what am I doing here… and what do you want from me?"

 _There was silence, but I knew that whoever was talking to me was still there, they were just taking a while to respond, and I honestly didn't care. Even if it took him an entire century to respond to me, I wouldn't have complained. Being in that giant black void all alone was what I really wanted at the time._

"Unfortunately, I can't disclose my identity to you just yet. However, I can guarantee you that in due time, you'll know everything that there is about me." _I was pretty bummed since it meant that he would potentially be bothering me in the future, but my will to care was practically gone at that point, so I just shrugged it off_. "Right now, your subconscious is in a place that exists between your dreams and reality."

 _Looking back on that part, in particular, it sounded like this person was going to add on to his sentence but he hesitated on doing so. If I'm going to be real with you, I just imagined some old man with a long nose staring at me as the voice said that line in particular._

"... So a lucid dream?" _I wasn't really understanding what he was going on about, but that's the only conclusion that I could come up with that made sense to me and to would possibly make sense to whoever it was that was talking to me._

"In a way… Yes, you're lucid dreaming." _Before that very point, I've never had a lucid dream in my life. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I never even believed in them. I always thought that people who have said that they had lucid dreams were either full of crap or was on some drug trip._ "While your body's resting in the real world, your subconscious stands here in the depths of your mind."

"This is the inside of my head…?" _As I had said previously, I was standing in a void of nothingness. Aside from myself, there was basically nothing there but the darkness that went on for what seemed like forever._ "Not only is it pretty dark and empty, but it's also very depressing to know that I have nothing in my head at all."

"You have entered into a dream-like state, whatever appears here is solely based off of your imagination." _If I'm to be honest, I never really was the imaginative type, even when I was a little kid. When all the other kids were fantasizing about being pirates, or superheroes, I just stood there and thought that they were insane. It had gotten to the point where I was so freaked out, I started to get scared of them and hid and played by myself._

"Based solely off of my imagination, huh? Well, if that's the case, then this place is going to remain an empty void for the rest of eternity." _I don't know the exact moment, but I think it was at this point in time when my sarcastic asshole personality started to manifest._

 _It was at this point in time where both of us went completely silent, though I had a reason for doing so. I was waiting for whoever it was that was talking to me to answer my last question, and I wasn't planning repeating myself because I was honestly tired of talking and just wanted some peace and quiet. I didn't know what that voice's deal was though._

"...A-Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten that you wish to know what you're doing here." _I didn't even have enough willpower to give this person a frustrated sigh, which really shows how done I was with everything that had to do with me._ "Hm… I don't think it would be wise for me to reveal so much all at once…"

 _It should've been painfully obvious to me at that moment that this guy was purposely hiding information from me, and I never did realize it until later. Matter of fact, I have a small feeling that I did know at the time, but do you think I was going to bother questioning it? If you said no, then you'd be correct._

"Alright then, I'll tell you what you need to know." _That statement alone only proved my point that this person was hiding things from me._ "Trenton Tamazaki, you have been assigned two tasks. Two tasks that I believe you are fully capable of competing."

"Am I able say no?" _I vaguely remember this part in particular because I was actually thinking about telling this guy that he could shove those tasks up his ass for all I cared, but I don't exactly remember if I went through with it and actually said it._

"Unfortunately for you, you aren't able to decline." _As he said that, I had let out a frustrated sigh and started to mutter profanities under my breath. I knew that he could hear me, but I had also known that he wasn't going to do anything about it._ "The moment you came into contact with that Soul, you had accepted anything that happens from this point forward."

"Soul? What the Hell are you even talking about?" _I just realized that life was starting to return to my body the longer I talked with this guy. Aside from me becoming more aggressive, I was starting to make hand movements whenever I spoke… Which was kinda weird, considering that I don't actually do that._

"Do you remember the meteor that had fallen and created a large crater in your backyard?" _Now that I think about it, whatever did happen after that meteor crashed into my backyard? Did nobody in my neighborhood freak out at all and come to check out the source of the noise?_ "Inside that meteor was a Soul, but to you, it looked like a floating heart."

"Well, I only touched that thing because some disembodied voice that shared the same role as you when it comes to annoying me was telling me to." _The person went completely quiet as I started talking about the disembodied voice, and all I can say is…How did it not register in my brain that they were the same person? "_ Anyway, are you trying to say that this Soul thing I grabbed was basically a contract in disguise that I just unknowingly signed?"

"That is correct, however, if you had known what was about to happen, the chances of you declining would've been greater than you accepting." _To this very day, I still think that was a bit of a dick move on his part. I don't think he was wrong though, I probably would've walked away if I had been told what was about to happen right then and there._

"Well, that sure is a dick move." _Even me in past had thought that it was a scumbag thing to do._ "...Whatever just tell me what these tasks are and how I should complete them."

"Thank you for cooperating." _That guy sounded so relieved that I was starting to budge, but he probably didn't know that the only reason why I decided to listen to him was that I just wanted him to stop talking._ "As I said, I will be giving you two tasks that I know you will be able to complete. For the first task, I will be asking you to become someone's… bodyguard. I don't think this will be-"

"Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait… Hold on just a fucking second!" _As you could probably tell, I wasn't prepared for the bomb that this guy had just dropped on me. I mean… how would you feel if some disembodied voice told you to become some random person's bodyguard? You'd definitely have several questions to ask. "_ You're entrusting another person's life to me, someone who practically couldn't care about their own? Do you not see how much of a bad idea this is?!"

"I don't see much of a problem with this arrangement. With how your mental state is at this current moment, it should be easy for you to throw your life on the line to save someone else's, right?" _Even though he was right, I actually felt offended by his statement. I'm not sure why I was offended, but I'm sure I'll remember later._ "If anything, this will be the right job for someone like you."

"S-Still, you can't just throw something like this onto me and expect me to just go along with it! There has to be something else I can do." _Before that point, the only person I really only protected was my brother and sometimes Caem whenever they were getting harassed by older kids. I had known full well that I wasn't bodyguard potential… If that's even a thing._ "I'm not qualified to become a bodyguard!"

"Whether you like it or not, this is the task you have been given. Even if I was able to give you another task, I think it would be better for you to keep this one." _I knew that there was no point in arguing with this guy any longer, nothing was going to change and he would only be a thorn in my side the longer I had talked to him._

"Ugh… Whatever, I'll take the stupid bodyguard job…" _In the end, I had argued with him for nothing and accepted the job. The only thing that I got out of it was that I was more annoyed than usual._ "What's the next task…"

 _Now… I want you to think about this for a bit. There's a major problem with what I just said, and I want you to see if you can point it out. I'll give you hint: I forgot to ask this guy a specific question._

"As for the next task, you-" _Before he could finish his sentence, I remember that my body started to feel… hot. I felt like my insides were starting to burn up and I began to sweat profusely. I didn't know why I felt like this, but I had a distinct feeling that the person I was talking to knew._

"Ah… Geez, why's it suddenly hot in here…?" _I should probably mention that I was wearing a suit. After my sister's burial, I went straight to the hospital. I didn't bother changing my clothes. Once I got home, I was so stressed out that I just went to my room and lied there for a few hours. Changing into a more comfortable outfit was definitely one of the last things on my mind._ "What's going on? I've never felt like this before…"

"It appears as if you're about to wake, that means that we'll have to continue our conversation at a later time." _While this person sounded sad to see me go, I was somehow able to muster a smile despite the fact that the entire underworld was manifesting itself within my body._ "When you wake up, I ask that you check your pockets. I gave you a few items that will prove useful to you in your journey."

"W-Wait, I have one more question! Wait… No, I have two-three-AGH! I have several questions that have yet to be answered." _Even though I was complaining about wanting to be alone, I at least wanted him to answer all of my questions before he had decided to disappear on me._

"It should be fairly obvious that this won't be the last time we meet like this, Trenton Tamazaki." _I found it weird that he was addressing me by my first and last name. It sucked even more that I didn't even like my first name, so just hearing it come out of someone's mouth just made the pain I was experiencing worse._ "Oh, and to help you concentrate on your goal, I decided to take something from you so you wouldn't be distracted so easily."

"W-What?! What did you take?!" _That was when the voice had finally decided to disappear, and I was left alone with this burning sensation in my body. I had only realized that he was finally gone after standing there for what felt like 10 minutes when a normal person would usually realize that within the first few seconds._ "Shit… Leaving me on a cliffhanger like that? This guy has a lot of nerve-Guh!"

 _I had fallen down onto my hands and knees at that point. The burning sensation in my body was practically unbearable at this point. My vision had started to get blurry, but I was only able to tell since I was staring down at my hands. If I was looking into the empty void that surrounded me, I wouldn't have been able to notice._

 _My body had then begun to get heavy and I had completely fallen to the ground. For some reason, my brain had thought that death was coming for me for real this time… Which was incredibly stupid to think since that whole conversation with the male voice I was having would have been entirely pointless._

"I'm so confused… What's… Happening…"

 _My eyes had then suddenly forced themselves shut, as I think I felt unconscious… Yeah, it sounds stupid, I know. How is it possible to pass out in your own dream? Well, I'm not an expert on the topic, so Hell if I know._

 _There was already silence in that empty void, but as soon as I shut my eyes, it felt 10x quieter then it was before._

…

…

…

 _And then I… Woke up._


	5. Chapter 5

_When I came to, I didn't open my eyes immediately. I just lied there on what felt like grass and listened to everything that was happening around me. I could feel the wind blow against my skin and heard the tree leaves rustle in response. There was something about the atmosphere that I just didn't know how to describe, and to this day, I'm still having trouble describing what I was feeling._

 _I then decided to finally open my eyes. My first reaction was to shield my them from the sun's strong beams until they had adjusted. I remember sitting up and just stared at the grass for minutes. I didn't move. I didn't speak. I didn't even blink. I just sat there and absorbed the greenery that surrounded me._

 _Something had then awoken inside me. Something that I thought was positive, and to this very day, I believe it to still be positive. This thing that had awoken inside me… had made me open my eyes for real. I finally had decided to lift my head and look around, and what I saw had left me almost speechless._

"... Where… Where am I?" _I was in a grassy field somewhere, and for miles upon miles, the grass was the only thing that I could see. The sky had very few clouds, and the sun had shined down on the field with its strong rays. It took me a while to notice that I was sitting under a giant tree. I don't know why, but it felt like that tree had been there for centuries, despite its young appearance… But what would I know? It's not like I'm a Dendrologist._ "I've never been here before...But why does it feel like I have?"

 _You know that feeling where you're trying to remember something and when you're about to remember it, it suddenly escapes from your grasps and you forget it again? That basically sums up how I was. Just when I thought I knew where I was, I had suddenly forgotten. It was almost like my brain didn't want me to remember for a specific reason._

 _I soon figured that there was no use in trying to remember where I was and gave up, I thought that I would eventually remember where I was later, and decided to move on. To be perfectly honest, I still don't have a clue as to where I was back then, and I don't know if I'll ever remember, despite knowing about the tree's origins._

 _I thought I had spent enough time on the ground and got up. As I stood up, I heard what sounded like coins shake in my pocket._ "Huh? What's this?" _I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pouch that looked like it really shouldn't have been able to fit inside my pocket. It was pretty heavy too if I remember correctly._

 _I opened the pouch and saw that I was correct when I said that there were coins in there, but something also seemed different about them. They didn't look like pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters. If anything, I'm certain that they weren't even made out of the same metals as those coins. On top of all those coins was a card, which I took out and had decided to read out loud for no real reason._

"Dear Trenton Tamazaki, the coins in the pouch are the currency of this world. They are known as "Credits", and I've supplied you with 10,000 of them. Use it wisely." _If you saw my face, you could definitely tell that I was confused. Most people would usually expect to wake up and have stuff taken from them, not stuff given to them._ "P.S. Welcome to Gamindustri. Sincerely, Your Benefactor… Gamindustri…?"

 _As I looked up from the card, I jumped at the sight of something new. Instead of seeing grass for countless miles, I could make out a city that could definitely be reached within 10 minutes by walking. This city wasn't there when I had looked ahead earlier, and I still can't understand why it had been hidden from me until I had read the card._ "Is that Gamindustri? I swear, nothing was there but grass earlier, so why-"

 _I had then noticed something pop up in the corner of my eye, although I couldn't see it very well. I walked to the other side of the tree and saw that another city that hadn't seen before appeared. From where I was standing, I could tell that the city was emitting a busy vibe… If that made any sense._

 _As I was about to verbally comment about what I had seen, something else had popped up in the corner of my eye. I quickly made my way to the opposite side of the tree and saw YET another city. This one had a bit of a more magical feeling about it… If that also makes any sense._

 _Something inside was telling me to turn my head, and so I did. To my surprise, another city had popped up in the distance. I didn't really have to move far to get a feel for what the city felt like. From where I was, I had gotten the feeling the city was more… active than the other ones… You know, I don't even know if what I'm saying is even making any sense to anyone._

"You know… I get the feeling that this Gamindustri isn't just one giant city." _Would you actually blame me for thinking something like that? I mean, really, can you? If you had just traveled to another world, you would most definitely be just as confused as I was._ "These cities must have individual names then…"

 _I walked over to the side of the tree that gave me a view of the city I had first seen. If I'm to be honest, it had a bit of a strange vibe about it about it. But that strange vibe had soon turned into that of a welcoming one. Unlike all the other cities, this one was pulling me in. It was almost like I was destined to go to this one in particular instead of the other ones I had just seen… but to be fair, it's probably because this city was way closer and would take less time._

 _I looked down at the pouch of credits and then looked back up at the city, I should also add that it looked pretty technologically advanced even though I was looking on from a distance._ "Standing here isn't going to do anything, so I might as well head over there."

 _After coming to that conclusion, I somehow stuffed the pouch of coins back into my pocket and began to walk. As I was walking, I stopped in my tracks. Something in my gut was telling me to turn around, and usually when my gut tells me something like that, I usually end up witnessing something freaky seconds later. However, this was during a time where I hadn't come to that realization. Anyway, I turned around and-_ "...Huh. I guess my gut was wrong for the first time in a while."

 _When I turned around, I had expected one of two things to happen. The first thing I expected was to turn around and see someone standing behind me. The next thing I expected was the tree that I had woken up at to had suddenly vanished into thin air. To my surprise, none of those things had happened._

 _I continued to walk, but just to be safe, I had looked behind me multiple times just to see if anything changed. I think it got to the point where I became a little paranoid and I had turned to the tree and begun to walk backward. In the end, nothing had happened and the tree remained where it was._

* * *

 _Before long, I had found myself inside the city that I had yet to know the name of. If I were to compare it to anything, then I would have to say that it reminded me of how the streets of places like Manhatten and Shibuya were. It was practically crowded and hard to navigate through, people were crossing the street in an orderly fashion, and the fear someone holding you at gunpoint and robbing you were still existent._

 _But compared to those places, this city seemed a lot tamer. As I said before, it had a welcoming feel to it, and I got the impression that people there were very friendly… Then again, I wouldn't have exactly known that since this was the time I had been there._

"I guess I should ask someone for information about where I am…" _Despite me thinking that everyone was welcoming, I somehow had my doubts. I knew I couldn't have walked up to any person and asked for directions. I didn't know what anyone in Gamindustri was capable of, so I had to be cautious. Now that I'm thinking back to that moment, in particular, it seems really stupid. Everyone who had walked past me had seemed pretty normal and here I was thinking that a few of them would attack me on sight._

 _I scanned the area for someone who didn't seem to be busy, it took a bit of time, and I was also kind of standing there like a moron. I had then noticed someone who felt… different from the rest of the people who walked by me. I decided to swallow my paranoia and ask them._ "Excuse me, miss?"

"Hm?" _This person was a girl who was a lot shorter than me. I guess one of the other reasons why she stood out to me was because she had a leaf in her hair, and was wearing an oversized blue jacket._ "Is there something you need, sir?"

"Uh, yeah. I was hoping you would be able to tell me where I am." _I looked around to show her that I was confused._ "I just got here and I'm not exactly sure where anything is."

"Ah, you're new to Planeptune, aren't you?" _And that's where I finally got my answer: I had wandered into the city-... no, the nation of Planeptune. This girl I had met had believed that I was some new resident, and to be honest, I just rolled with it. I knew it was going to be a pain to explain to her the circumstances that had led me to this point._

…

…

…

 _That's when it dawned upon me. I had come to not one, but two realizations at that very moment. I was trying my best to remember, but it was pointless._

 _The first realization I came to? I didn't even know what I was doing in Planeptune! Remember how I asked you to point out the problem with what I had said when I was talking to that voice in my subconscious? Yeah, that's what it was! I knew I was supposed to be someone's bodyguard, but since I just wanted him to stop talking, I never did ask him WHO I was supposed to be protecting._

 _The second realization was something a bit more… Odd. As I said, I decided not to explain the circumstances that led me to Planeptune at all to the girl. But as I had thought about it, I had realized that I couldn't even remember the events that lead me to Planeptune at all. Everything that happened before I talked to that guy in my subconscious was nothing but a blur. Which is why I said that my recollection of the events that happened back on Earth are still hazy since I just recently remembered everything._

"Uh… Hello?" _I had gone into a bit of a trance as I was thinking about everything, I had almost forgotten about the girl and was blocking out everything that she was saying, though it wasn't on purpose._ "Hey, you doing alright? You're looking a bit pale?"

"A-Ah… Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I just uh… didn't get a lot of sleep last night." _You know, I technically wasn't wrong when I said that. Due to the everything that had happened with my sister, going to sleep wasn't even a thing on my mind._ "Uh, yeah. I'm kinda new here."

"Well, I'd love to give you a tour, but it's definitely going take a while to show you around the nation, and I've got somewhere to be in thirty minutes." _I was a tad bit bummed since she really seemed like she knew her way around the nation at first, but after she finished her sentence, it looked like she had begun to think about something. At the same time, I could tell that she was eying me and making sure that I wasn't dangerous, which is understandable,_ "Hm… Tell you what, if you come by the guild in about an hour or so, I'll show you around. Does that sound good?"

"Guild?" _As soon as I heard, "Guild" come out of her mouth, I immediately thought of the places that you usually go to recruit party members and get quests in RPGs and a few animes. Then again, Guilds were also real things back in the medieval age of Earth and I feel like I should feel bad for not linking it to that instead of video games._ "Where's that?"

 _The girl had then given me directions to the Guild, and since I was most likely not going to stay in the same place after she left, she decided to give me a few tips on how to get there from anywhere in the nation._ "And if you somehow still can't find it, just ask someone for directions. The people in this nation are willing to lend a helping hand as long as you aren't jerks to them."

"Oh, thank you so much, Miss-... Uh… I'm sorry, I never did get your name."

"It's-"

 _Right as she was about to introduce herself to me, I heard a jingle come from close by. The girl sighed loudly and reached into one of her many pockets and pulled a pink… flip phone… Yeah, as someone who came from a world that has mostly upgraded from flip phones to smartphones, I had found that to be quite baffling, especially since we were standing in a nation that looked like it was constantly in some sort of technology golden age._ "Hello?" _When the girl answered her phone, she sounded a bit annoyed._ "...Oh for crying out loud! Didn't this happen last week? … Ugh, listen, I have work to do, so I can't go to the Basilicom right now… Can we please not resort to that? You and the others are just to have to-"

 _To add more onto the girl's pile, a beeping sound had gone off somewhere close by. The girl rolled up her sleeve and revealed that he was wearing a watch. The girl checked her watch for the time, and as soon as she read the time on her watch, her eyes widened._ "Aww crap, at this rate I'm going to be late!"

 _I had almost forgotten that she had somewhere to be. I knew that I would be able to take care of myself for the next hour, so I motioned her to just go one ahead… Well, I would've done that, but she had already run off in the direction she was originally walking. I'm also certain that she had forgotten about me, considering that she hadn't looked back and was still on the phone._

 _And so, I was by myself once again. However, I was a bit happy knowing that I would have some guide. Aside from looks and technology, everything had felt the same as it did on Earth. I refused to believe that there weren't any major differences between Earth and Gamindustri, the world definitely had more offer._

"Guess I should do a bit of sightseeing myself." _If anything, I kinda felt that I stood out myself. Remember how I said I was wearing a suit? Everyone around me was wearing casual clothing, while the suit I was wearing made it seem like I belonged to some rich family. Despite acknowledging it earlier, I had completely forgotten. Let's just say… It's both a good and bad thing that I had forgotten about what I was wearing._


	6. Chapter 6

_I spent the next 40 minutes or so walking around the nation, seeing what it had to offer. Everyone I had seen in Planeptune looked like they had places to be, and were practically rushing to their destination. Seriously, every few minutes, I would have someone bump into me and apologize before running off._

 _Lots of teenagers and children also seemed to be present. The teenagers were meeting up with their friends so they could hang out with each other, and a lot of children were playing with each other in a local park I had happened walk right by._

 _Most of the buildings here in Planeptune looked the same, so I wasn't really able to tell if some of these buildings were apartments or workplaces. It was only until I had gotten to the Commercial District I had started to notice changes in the buildings structures._

 _There was a large variety of shops in this district, whether they were for recreational purposes or things needed in your everyday life. Even if this entire district wasn't as big as a mall back on Earth, I had still found myself impressed with the selection each store had to offer._

 _I hadn't wandered around too far from the Guild, I only stayed in the areas close to it. There wouldn't really be a point in having that girl guide me around the nation if I had already seen the entire place for myself, so I had decided to limit myself from going too far._

"Phew…" _Since_ _I had been walking around for a while, I was beginning to get tired. I took a seat on a street bench that was close by and took a deep breath._ "I still can't believe that I'm in another world…"

 _I'm sure most people would probably freak out if they were to suddenly get whisked away into an unfamiliar world as I had, but I apparently wasn't one of them. I was calm and my head was clear. It's definitely strange if you think about it, considering my state of mind back on Earth._

 _The only thing that was on my head at the time, however, was the whole task thing that man had been talking to me about. "_ He never did get the chance to tell me what the second task was…" _In a way, I was kinda screwed. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing in Gamindustri, and I didn't have anyone to guide me. I also had a feeling that I wouldn't be talking to that guy for a while since he was implying that it would take a bit for us to talk again._ "What am I going to do?"

 _Another thought that had just occurred to me was that I didn't have anywhere to go. I knew that I would be by myself after the girl had shown me around. I know that I've basically already said this, but it really sucked not to have a guide back then._

"Well… Whatever. Now isn't really the time to think about these type of things." _After thinking about for a while, I got up from my seat and dusted off anything that might've gotten onto my clothes._ "I got to go meet with… Aww, crap. I never got her name, did I?"

 _It wasn't technically my fault since she had gotten a phone call from someone before she was able to answer me. I still got frustrated regardless._ "You know what? This is fine. As long as I know what she looks like, then finding her shouldn't be much of a problem."

 _Back when I first arrived in Gamindustri, I remember that I made so many screw-ups in the first few days of me being there. If I can remember correctly, this might be the third or fourth one I had happened to make, and I hadn't even been in Gamindustri for half a day!_

 _I soon noticed the lack of people in the area I was in, which was a bit odd to me at first, but I decided to not question it because it might've been due to some law or event that had happened. Let me just say this in advanced… I was so wrong._

 _I didn't want to stay in this area any longer, so I started to make my way to the guild. As I was walking, I had passed by this girl who I could immediately tell was some sort of nurse. It wasn't because she was wearing a uniform or anything, but because she was carrying a large duffle bag that had a red cross symbol on it._

 _The girl noticed me looking at her as I walked by and gave me a warm smile, and to be quite honest with you, that would've been enough to knock me out if my body was still in the condition it was back on Earth. I continued walking, and as I was turning a corner, I had heard what I thought was a man's voice, followed by something falling._ "Sorry, cutie. You know the rules."

"H-Huh?"

 _I immediately stopped in my tracks and began to back up slowly. Whenever you heard crap like that, it's never a good sign. When I turned around, the same girl I had just walked past was almost cornered by these two guys, one had a strange mask on, while the other one didn't. Her bag full of medical supplies was in the hands of the guy with the mask._

"Haven't you heard the rumors about the group of criminals going around and doing all kinds of shit to people like yourself?" _The guy without the mask said. I would just like to say that something about this had felt really off to me and it might've been because I was getting the vibe that this was some really bad cliche._ "To top it all off, you're in our territory. And whatever wanders into our territory, is our property. Got it?"

"O-Oh, um… I don't think my friends would really like that too much." _It was at that point I had realized that this girl was an airhead as well. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying her being an airhead was a bad thing, but… In this situation, it only made matters worse on her end._ "And I'm actually pretty busy today, so I don't think I can-"

 _At that point, the guy had done something that had made me subconsciously step out of my hiding place. This was probably a good thing… Err, well not really good in the way I was thinking, but I had acted a lot sooner than I had expected myself to._

"W-W-Wait! Y-You can't touch there!" _I'm not really sure if I should say what he was doing to her since I don't want to anger myself or anyone I'm telling this story too. All I'll say is that he was… grabbing her in an area that some girls have grown in, while others don't._ "I don't like this feeling at all!"

"Boss, you wouldn't mind if I played around with her for a bit, would you?" _The guy turned to the man wearing the mask that was supposedly his boss. I have to say, the guy with the mask was giving me real edgelord vibes. I wasn't able to see their face, but I could tell that they were very annoyed and wanted nothing to do with their grunt._ "Hell, it shouldn't even be a problem if we brought here with us, right?"

 _This girl was scared, she was trying to break free from this guy's grasps, but it looked like it only got more difficult for her. My body had already decided to do its own thing once again, but this time, I was actually glad that it had done what it had done. There was a huge chance that I might've done something stupid like go and call for help, or just stand there and watch._

"Excuse me, but don't you think it's rude to touch a girl without her consent?"

 _All at once, all three of them had turned to look at me. It didn't really seem bad… for the first few seconds. As I've said before, I have a bit of anxiety, so as soon as all their eyes were on me, I felt like the world was just waiting for me to make a mistake. To make things even worse, the thought of these guys being dangerous never really occurred to me until that very moment. I didn't know if these guys had any weapons on them, or worse._

"Who the Hell are you?" _Despite my earlier comment, the guy had kept his hands on the girl and was now looking in my direction. I could tell that he was checking me out… Err… Not in that way, but he seemed to be analyzing the clothing I was wearing. "_ Oh, I get it. You're one of those rich guys who think money can buy their way out of problems, huh?"

"I… What?" _I could also tell that I was looking at another airhead. Actually, saying that this guy was an airhead is too nice. Let me rephrase that sentence:_

 _I could also tell that I was looking at a full-blown dumbass. "_ Are you stupid? What makes you think I solve my problems with money? I think it would be much better if I were to handle them with-"

"Oh, so now you think you're a tough guy, huh?" _I felt myself losing brain cells the longer I had talked to this guy. He may not sound that stupid, but trust me, half of the things he said were lost in translation. He sounded a lot dumber than I'm making him out to be._ "Yeah, I get it. That must be the case! Well, too bad chump, this girl is our property now and I won't be giving her to you anytime soon!"

 _This guy was trying to be difficult, and I didn't appreciate him making this harder for myself. I looked over at the girl, and I could see tears slowly forming in her eyes as she looked at me. I wasn't thinking about backing down before but seeing her face only solidified my resolve._

 _I could hear someone take a deep breath that sounded slightly muffled. I instantly knew who it was for whatever reason and turned to the grunt's boss, who I had the feeling was getting bored or impatient. I should mention that unlike the grunt, the boss had concealed their entire body with different types of clothing. Hoodies, gloves, boots, you name it, there's a chance that they had it on them._

 _The boss then looked at me and snapped their fingers. At first, I thought she was signaling the grunt next to her to do something, but he continued to have his way with the girl. As I took a step towards them, I heard footsteps behind me. I acted on instinct and jumped out of the way, I quickly turned around and saw that there was another person, who was holding something that almost gave me a heart attack._

"I'm sorry, is that a GOD DAMN SWORD?!" _This person had sneaked up behind me with a short sword in their possession and tried to stab me. My heart had begun to race because I did not honestly expect someone to be carrying some sort of weapon on them… Okay, that might've been a bit of a lie. I was expecting the first grunt to pull out some knife or firearm and try to attack me, and I was prepared for either outcome. I wasn't prepared for someone to sneak up behind me and try to stab me though!_ "Why the Hell are you carrying that in the open?!"

"..." _This person didn't say anything either just like their boss. This guy was also wearing a mask, but they weren't concealing their entire bodies like the other guy was. They entered into what I figured to be some fighting stance and stared me down._

 _Now, as someone who just came from a world where fighting out in public is only a thing mostly done in national tournaments or wars, I wasn't prepared for this at all. On top of that, remember how I was really calm earlier? Yeah, that was starting to fade away and was going to get replaced with fear if something didn't happen._

"... That's really low." _I was trying to play it off, acting like I wasn't really scared of the very thing that could easily end my life._ "I don't have a weapon, and yet you do? How's that fair exactly? If you want us to fight, then at least make it fair by giving me something… or we could just have a good ol' fashioned fist fight."

 _I don't exactly know what made me think using chivalry would be a good idea in the slightest. My past self had failed to realize that these guys were stealing, molesting, and trying to stealth kill people. As far as I know, chivalry was dead._

 _With that in mind, the guy didn't even hesitate in the slightest and ran at me. I was just barely able to dodge out of the way as they had attempted to hit me with an jump slash. Fortunately for myself, they had gotten their weapon stuck in the wall the moment I had moved out of the way and was trying to pull it out of the wall._

 _Remember how I said I was apart of the martial arts club awhile ago? I didn't go to a lot of the meeting since I had a very tight schedule, but something inside me was telling me that it was time for me to put my skills to good use. I took a deep breath and steadied my breathing, once I regained my composure, I balled up my fist and with as much strength I could muster, I threw a punch at the guy right as he pulled the sword out of the wall._

 _My fist collided with the side of his face and sent him stumbling back into the guy who had the girl under his control. The guy I was fighting fell onto the first grunt and dropped his sword on the ground. The girl took this as a sign and was about to make a run for, at least, that was until the boss had grabbed her by the wrist._

"L-Let go! You guys aren't really nice after all!" _The girl's comment would've gotten a snicker out of me if the mood wasn't really this tense. I looked down at the sword the guy had dropped, and then back at the girl and the masked man. For some reason, a part of me told me to not do what I was about to do. It was saying that it would somehow affect me in the future._

…

…

…

"AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!" _A scream that seemed as if it came from the demons of Hell sounded throughout the entire city. The masked individual fell onto the floor while the girl and I looked down at them. As I watched them scream in agony on the floor, a part of me felt guilty, and another part of me said I was going to Hell. The rest of me… I actually don't think It's a good idea to say that part just yet._

"...S-Shit! What are we still doing here?!" _I grabbed the girl's bag and turned to her._ "Come on, let's get out of here before any more of these guys decide to show up."

"O-Okay!"

 _With that, the two of us took off. As we were running, I could hear faint a faint mumble, but I wasn't too sure… Looking back on it today though… What I had heard was definitely a mumble, and I'm sure that karma has yet to reach me for what I had done._

 **A/N: _Hello, world! My name is Acallaris, and thanks a lot for reading this chapter! I just wanted to apologize for not uploading for these past few days, since I had family over. IF you haven't noticed by now, there's a bit of a pattern with how I upload chapters, but I'm not going to make it official or anything._**

 _ **Anyway, that's all I really had to say. Thanks a lot for reading, I'll see you all later.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_The two of us kept on running through the city for a long time, we weren't sure if we were being chased or not since we had left so quickly, but I sure as Hell didn't want to take any chances. While we were running, I had soon realized that I was one who was leading the way while the girl followed behind me. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but because of the situation we were in, I had completely forgotten that I was new to Gamindustri._

"Okay...Okay, I think we might be good…" _As soon as I stopped, the adrenaline inside had started to wear off and I had collapsed onto the floor. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest, and I was having trouble taking the shortest of breaths. "_ Hoo boy… I really overdid it…"

 _As I was saying, the two of us were pretty much running around blindly, or at least I was. From what I can remember, we had entered yet another unpopulated area of town. I hadn't realized this until I was finally able to breathe again and took in my surroundings. I was skeptical at first, but the girl didn't seem too worried about where we were, so I was able to relax._

"Mister, are you okay?" _I was still sprawled out on the ground when the girl had asked me that. I slowly turned my head and saw that she was kneeling down right beside me. I can vividly remember seeing the worry in her eyes as she looked down at me and as I looked up at her._ "You don't really look too well…"

"Me? Oh, no I'm fine! You don't have to worry about me." _I was pretty much lying. My heart was about ready to explode, and my legs were sorer then they have ever been. I was pretty much ready to die at any given point in time._ "I should be the one asking you that. Are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?"

 _The girl reassured me by shaking her head. I was relieved to see that she didn't have any scratches or bruises on her. I can't say the same for those criminals back there, after what had transpired. Once again, I'm going to wait until later to reveal what had happened back there, since I think the timing would be much more appropriate._

"That's a relief." _I spent a few more minutes lying on the ground, trying my hardest not to pass out due to how exhausted I was. Now that I think about it, there weren't a lot of people in that area, but there was still people nonetheless. They probably thought that it was weird that a guy was sprawled out on the ground with a girl kneeling down beside him… But then again, who am I to care about what others thought?_

 _I soon found enough strength to sit up. My head was spinning, and it was still hard to control my urge to pass out, but I somehow managed._ "Oh boy… I haven't even been here for two hours and I feel like my life is in danger, ahaha…" _If you couldn't tell, I was nervous for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that there was a chance of me being wanted by some sort of criminal organization. Nevertheless, I had to keep my composure._

"Huh? What do you mean by that, mister?" _I was planning on explaining to the girl that I was "new" to Planeptune, but she had fortunately caught on to what I had meant very quickly._ "Oh, I get it now! You're new to Planeptune, aren't you?"

"Basically." _I've already established that this girl is an airhead, but I was also getting the feeling that she was slow to process things. It may not seem like it now, but I assure you that as we get further into this story, the longer it will take for her to process the most obvious of things._

"Wow, it's only your first day and you're already making an impression on everyone!" _This girl had seemed really happy about this for some reason, and I couldn't quite understand why._ "Although, I don't think it's in a way you expected… or wanted."

 _She certainly wasn't wrong, that was for sure. I had a feeling that I would get into some sort of mess eventually. Did I think it would happen this soon? Of course not, it all happened so fast. All I knew at the time was that I was going to have to be extra careful._

"Oh, that's right! I almost forgot! Thank you for saving me, mister!" _I had then realized that she had been calling me "Mister" the entire time. I found it a little weird because I was only 18 and I didn't exactly look old at all._ "I knew I was forgetting to say something really important!"

"Oh uh… You don't have to refer to me as "Mister" you know. You're making me sound a lot older than I actually am." _While I will admit it felt nice to be old enough to be called a "mister", I wasn't exactly ready to accept title until I was in my 30s or 40s. Little did I know that it wouldn't really matter in the end, considering my current position._ "After all, I'm only 18."

"Huh? You're only 18? Then does that mean I'm older than you?" _Before I continue on, let me just tell you that back in my world, people usually looked their age for the most part. If you saw someone wearing a fancy dress taking a stroll down the sidewalk, you could tell that it was a woman. If you saw a short person with a school backpack on and a young looking face, you could tell that they were a child._

 _Now, here in Gamindustri… that didn't mean absolute shit! This girl had looked like she was still in high school, yet she was older than me! At first, I just kinda assumed that she was older by a year or two, so I didn't think much of it. I never would've thought that I would learn the truth how old she really was until much much later. Would it matter by then? No, not really._

"Seriously? You look a lot younger than that." _I would've asked her how old she was, but it's pretty much an unwritten rule that you never ask a girl her age unless she tells you, and since it seemed like I was going to be kept in the dark, I just decided to tell her what most girls wanted to hear._

"Huh? I do?" _I was half expecting her to say thank you for the compliment, but it apparently didn't have much of an effect since she sounded a bit clueless._ "Well okay… But if you don't want me to call you Mister, then what should I call you?"

 _Now, this is the part where I'm supposed to introduce myself. You know, give her my full name, and all that crap, right? Well, you know how my body likes to act on its own? This time, my brain had gone into autopilot and I had blurted out._ "Tamazaki." _I was trying to say "Trenton" but something just wouldn't let me say it._

 _After thinking about, I think I know the reason why I couldn't say my first name, and I guess that's because anytime I heard someone say it, I would always remember the bad memories of my past… Not trying to sound edgy or anything! But when I was younger, whenever someone had said, "Trenton" something bad would always end up happening to me moments later. Things such as something breaking and me getting blamed for it, and embarrassing myself in front of other people, or even just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. You name it, and there was a chance it had happened to me._

 _Even though I was young, I had noticed that pattern. To test it out, I had people start calling me by my last name, and when they had started to do that, it was as if my bad luck had disappeared into thin air. The only person who still referred to me as Trenton was Celia, who didn't really believe me when I told her my first name was cursed and to just call me Tamazaki instead._

 _So getting back to the topic at hand, I think I had just instinctively said Tamazaki because I… guess I just wanted a new start. I didn't want to be known as Trenton Tamazaki, but just Tamazaki. I kinda had a feeling that this would complicate things if I were to get married or have a child, but I didn't worry too much because the chances of those happening were very low at the time._

… _If only the past me could see how he ended up in the future._

"Tamaza-...Tamazu-...Tamazucchni?" _And this is where it begins. This was where the mispronunciations of my name had started, and would certainly not end for a very very VERY long time._ "You have a really funny name!"

"...W-What? That's not what I said at all!" _This was also the start of my useless effort in trying to correct her, not knowing that I would fail in the long run. "_ I said my name was Tamazaki! Not Tamazucchni!"

"Oh, Tamacheese! I think I get it now!"

"Tamacheese?! Where did that even come from?! I said Tamazaki! TA-MA-ZA-KI!"

"Ta-ma-..." _Deep down, I knew she was about to butcher it so bad that it wouldn't even be recognizable anymore._ "...Tamanoodle? That's how you pronounce it, isn't it? It's Tamanoodle!"

 _I was actually about to lose it. There were so many other fails in pronouncing my name, that I just don't even want to think about them. I stood there for a good solid 10 minutes trying to correct her, but the harder I tried, the worst it got._

"T-Ta-Tama... This is really hard, I can't remember the rest…" _During that time, I had completely forgotten that I was dealing with an airhead. If I had realized that sooner, then there was a chance that I could've saved myself a solid 6-8 minutes of my life that I, unfortunately, will never be able to get back._ "Oh, I know! I'll just call you Tama! Does that sound okay, mister?"

"...Sure, I'll take it." _I was very agitated, and I didn't want to deal with her adding more letters to my name than necessary or butchering the crap out of it, so I just went with the nickname of Tama._ "It's close enough and it's better than nothing."

"Okay, then it's settled! It's nice to meet you, Tama! My name is **Compa**!" _And it was at that point I had officially thrown away my identity as Trenton and replaced it with Tamazaki. This was also when I had met Compa, the first friend that I had made in the world of Gamindustri, although I was kind of unsure at first if she considered us friends at first, but-_ "I hope we can become great friends!" - _those thoughts were immediately put to rest._

* * *

"A guide?"

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be having someone show me around Planeptune. They wanted me to meet them at the Guild, but I guess I was a bit too late."

 _After the introductions and mispronunciations were out of the way, Compa had told me that there was somewhere that she needed to be. After what had just happened, I was really skeptical and didn't want her to be by herself since those criminals could've been lurking around, so I volunteered to walk her to her destination._

 _I was relieved that the route we were taking was in a much more populated area, so no one could really get the jump on us since people were around. As we were walking, I had explained to her the "events" that had led me to Planeptune. As much as I would've liked to tell her what was really going on, I had to remain silent. I didn't really know what would happen if I had told Compa what my actual situation was, and I wasn't willing to find out. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, it was just that I didn't want her getting involved in something that was potentially dangerous._

"I'm sorry that your first day in Planeptune was a total disaster, Tama." _Seeing Compa sad had actually hurt me in more ways than one, and I can guarantee you that she isn't going to be the only person to do that._ "I wouldn't blame you if you told me that those bad guys put a bad taste in your mouth."

"H-Hey, it's not really that big of a deal… I mean, I guess it is, but not in the way you think." _Every city has its fair share of crimes, it's just something that happens naturally. Even with that in mind, I still understood where Compa was coming._ "I'm not going to let that ruin how I see Planeptune, stuff like this happens all the time."

"This felt really different from all those other times though…" _Compa was right though. In this particular crime, Compa was a victim, and if I hadn't played my cards right, who knows what could've happened to her?_ "You could've gotten yourself seriously hurt, Tama…"

"And you could've gotten yourself kidnapped or worse." _Something had then popped in my head, and I was curious to find out what it was._ "Speaking of which, why were you in that part of town anyway, Compa?"

"Oh, that's an easy question! I just finished working and I was going back to my workplace to return my supplies before leaving for the day." _Compa lifted her duffle bag, indicating that her supplies were inside there._ "I'm a nurse at a Hospital, but I sometimes travel and take care of people in their homes or other places."

"I had a feeling that you were doing something in the medical field." _Even if Compa wasn't carrying that giant duffle bag of medical supplies, or hadn't told me that she was a nurse, I most likely would've found out since she was giving off a vibe that only some sort of caretaker would have. "_ So does that mean that you usually walk through that area when you're going to and from work?"

"Not all the time, no. I usually only go that way when I'm leaving work in a hurry, just like today. That part of Planeptune we were in isn't normally that dangerous, it's just really quiet!" _I felt better knowing that it wasn't usually like that for the most part, but something had told me that after today, that was all going to change._ "One of my friends called me and wanted me to go over to their place when I got off of work."

"So that's where you're going." _I might've said this before, but it was really hard to tell what these buildings were. Apparently, we were in the housing district of Planeptune, but the buildings looked like the ones in the main city, which threw me off. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could really do about it, and I was just going to have to adjust._

 _I was thinking about asking Compa about her friends, but I felt as if that would be a bit too much to ask. She might've been a really kind and sweet girl, but I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable around me by entering into her personal space, we had just met after all._

 _The two of us continued walking for some time. Every now and then, she would ask me a question, and I would ask her one in return. Most of these were questions that I had to come up with answers for since I didn't exactly know what most of them had meant. It was going well if I say so myself… you know, until she had asked me one question in particular._

"Tama, what nation did you come from?"

"I'm… Sorry?"

"Well, you just moved here from another nation, right? I was wondering if you could tell me what nation you came from."

 _I was stumped. I knew from the moment she asked that question that she was talking about one of the 3 other cities I had seen while I was on that hill. Unfortunately, I had never gotten the names of that of those other cities during the short time I had been in Planeptune, so I didn't really know what to say._

"Err…" _I had to think of something and it had to be believable. I have had some bad luck in the past, so I wasn't going to try to make up some city on the spot._ "...How about you guess?" _Those words had come out of my mouth without me fully realizing it. I want to say that my brain had done its own thing again, but I was thinking of asking her something along the lines of that, so I guess my brain just completed the sentence._

"Huh? You want me to guess?" _I stopped walking and stood in place so Compa could get a good look at me. Compa also stopped walking and began to analyze me, and for whatever reason, I had a feeling that it just based off of my clothes._ "Well, you dress like most citizens that come from Lastation would, but you kinda act like someone who grew up in Lowee. At the same time, your facial features and hair color remind me of most people from Leanbox."

 _I didn't have any visible reactions, but I was shocked yet amazed that my idea had actually worked. Compa had indirectly told me the names of the other 3 nations in Gamindustri… And that's when it hit me. The name of the world was Gamindustri, and there were 3 other nations that were known as Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox._

"(That… That has to be a coincidence, right?)" _It had clicked in my mind that the names of the nations had sounded very familiar, and it was in more ways than one. All of these nations had reminded me of certain game consoles that were pretty popular back on Earth, and fact that Gamindustri had "Game" in its name had risen a lot of flags in my head._ "(It has to be, right? Who would name their country after a game console?)"

"Aww, this is really hard! It's not nice of you to keep making me do really difficult things, Tama!" _I felt guilty when I really shouldn't have been. The only hard thing that she had done was try to pronounce my name, and I wasn't even meant to be hard since it's only 8 letters long!_ "Can you just tell me what it is, Tama? I give up!"

"Y-You… You haven't even taken a guess yet, Compa…" _As much as I wanted her to take a guess, putting her through this pain wasn't worth it. "_ Alright, fine. Even though you didn't give me a proper answer, you tried."

"Yay, I tried!"

 _After that failed guessing game happened, I told Compa what "nation" I had "come" from, and she believed me. Let me just say that for the first few days, I had to lie to a lot of people in order to stay safe. It didn't feel good, and I still have regrets, but it was for the better._

 _Oh, and you're probably wondering what nation I had told Compa I was from. That can wait until later since it's one of those things that should be brought up at the right time._

* * *

"We're finally here!"

"W-Wow… Y-You're friends live… here?"

 _Compa and I had finally arrived at our destination, which was her friend's house… Although, saying that it was a "house" is a bit of an understatement. "Tower" was a lot more appropriate. This very tower was the tallest building in the entire nation, I'm pretty sure that I had even seen it when I was under that tree a few hours earlier._

"Yup! They're really special, which is why they live here." _I had thought that whoever lived in that tower was some form of royalty at first. Why would I think that? I don't have a single damn clue. The tower didn't even look like a castle so that just furthers my confusion._

"Is that so... " _I had figured that since this was where Compa had to be, it would be for the best if I had taken my leave. I wasn't going to follow her into her friend's house since I'm sure I would be overstepping my boundaries._ "Well, I did what I promised. Since you're here now, I think I'm going to take my leave now."

"Aww, you can't stay Tama?" _I was a little glad that she didn't exactly want me to leave, which meant that I had made a good impression on her… But then again, it's not really hard to make a good impression on someone you saved, especially if they're like Compa._ "But if you have somewhere to go, then I won't stop you."

"Yeah, as much as I would like to stay, I have things that I need to take care of before the night falls." _That was another lie since because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing and I was practically wandering around aimlessly until something had happened._ "It was nice meeting you Compa, I hope I'll be able to see you again soon."

"I really hope so, too. Thank you again for saving me, Tama!"

 _Compa had waved to me as she was entering the tower, and I waved back until she was no longer in my sight. I was on my own once again, but that inevitable. Compa was with her friends, and the sun was starting to set._

 _Oh, remember the girl I was supposed to meet up with at the Guild? I forgot to mention that Compa and I had stopped there on our way to the tower. It turned out that the girl wasn't there at all, and that was most likely due to me arriving at the Guild at least 2 hours after our original meetup time._

"I'm sure I'll figure something out…"

 _I started to walk away from the tower, but immediately stopped I had felt like something was wrong. I had a weird feeling, a feeling that you would only get when you were being watched by something or someone. I quickly turned around, but as I expected, I didn't see anyone behind or around me._

"Huh… I'm probably just imagining things. _" And with that, I had walked off. If only I had looked up, even if it was just a bit. There someone staring down at me from inside the tower. Who was that person you might ask? Well…_

…

…

…

 _Let's just say that it was my future._


	8. Chapter 8

_Alright, after taking a short break, I think I can finally continue telling the story. Although, I think I might change it up a bit. Instead of going into full-on detail about everything that had happened, I'm just going to give you all the main points along with a few minor things._

 _This is taking a little bit longer than I expected, and we've got stuff to do, so I'm trying not to waste all of our time. Hopefully, you'll understand._

 _Now, with that out of the way, I believe it's time to continue on with our story. After parting ways with Compa, I wandered around for a bit and eventually found a hotel. It then dawned on me that I didn't have anywhere to sleep, so without any hesitation, I went in._

* * *

Tamazaki pushed opened the doors that lead into the hotel, only to be immediately blinded by the bright lights upon entering. Tamazaki winced a bit and shielded his eyes, but after waiting a few seconds, he moved his hands away from his face and looked forward.

Although it was just the reception area, Tamazaki could tell that the hotel he had stepped in was probably highly rated. The room had looked pretty and radiated a lot of energy. "This place has to be 5 stars, if not, then at least 4." The blonde male muttered. "Which probably means that renting one of these rooms is going to be pretty pricey."

Tamazaki winced at the thought and took out his pouch. Inside the pouch was the same note that his, "benefactor" had left for him, as well as 10,000 credits. Tamazaki also hadn't eaten anything in a few hours, but because of the situation he had found himself in, food was the last thing on teen's mind.

"I don't even know the price and I'm already worried…"

"Excuse me, sir?" Tamazaki had heard a voice and lifted his head. A young woman, who was most like the receptionist, stood behind a counter and was looking at him with a warm welcoming smile on her face. "Is there something that I can help you with?"

"H-Huh? Oh, I uh… guess so?" Tamazaki had found himself caught off guard and walked towards the front desk while fixing the collar of his shirt. "I was wondering if you knew how much it would be to rent a room for one night."

"I'm terribly sorry, but we only can only give rooms to those who have reservations." Tamazaki groaned. The very thing that the blonde haired male was hoping the receptionist wouldn't say was that they had done room bookings by reservations. "And even if you were to book now, all of our rooms are currently full at the moment, so wouldn't be able to stay in this hotel for at least another week."

" _This is just perfect_ …" Tamazaki didn't really have many options. The teen was just barely able to stumble across this hotel due to how dark it was getting outside, and with the danger of being assaulted by those criminals who were attacking Compa earlier, he couldn't really risk wandering around to find another hotel, and even if he did, what were the chances of him being able to get a room? "Oh, alright. Thank you for telling me. I'll be leaving now."

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, sir." The young woman bowed as Tamazaki had walked away. "We hope you'll be able to come back here next time as a guest!"

* * *

Tamazaki walked out of the hotel and stood on the sidewalk of the now dark streets of Planeptune. The street lights were now starting to turn on, and the streets were started to become less populated.

"Ugh… What am I going to do?"

 _I didn't really have many choices since all of them wouldn't really work out in my favor. I could've gone to find another hotel, but as I said before, the chance of me being turned away was highly likely, and I also could've been on some sort of secret hitlist that I felt like I was somewhat aware of._

 _Part of me was regretting not going with Compa into that giant tower since there was a chance that I wouldn't have been in this predicament. On the other hand, I just didn't want to intrude into her personal life, if that makes any sense… or is even a thing._

 _After thinking about it for a few minutes, I had come up with a solution to my sleeping problem. Although, looking back on it… It wasn't really the best._

Tamazaki looked as if he were in deep thought as he had tried to come up with a solution. There were so many ideas that he had but had to shut them down due to specific reasons. "Am I seriously going to have to sleep on the streets somewhere…?" Tamazaki shuddered at the thought of that. "I'm definitely not going to be safe if I end up doing that!"

Tamazaki felt like giving up, but there was a small part of him that was holding on. That small part was using all the resources in his brain to formulate an idea that would have the least amount of negative side effects.

After another moment of silence, a miracle had happened.

While Tamazaki was thinking, a very small leaf had landed in his hand. With it being a leaf, the man didn't really put too much thought into it, yet for some reason, he had found himself staring at the leaf for a long period of time.

…

…

…

"I got it."

Something had clicked in Tamazaki's brain as he stared at the leaf, and that was another idea. What had made the blonde haired teen happy was that it had little to no drawbacks. Tamazaki clenched the leaf in his hand tightly and had started to walk down the street, and towards the place, he had entered the nation from.

* * *

Tamazaki had now found himself at the bottom of the hill, staring up at a gigantic tree. This hill happened to be the very hill the man had woken up at earlier in the day. The area around the hill gave a calm and relaxing vibe. "Never thought I'd be back here so soon." Tamazaki talked to himself as he climbed the hill. "I guess it really doesn't matter, now does it?"

Once the blonde haired teen had reached the top of the hill, he went and sat against the tree. "Phew, I think I can finally rest now…" Tamazaki took a deep breath and looked up into the sky. The moon was somewhat blocked by the leaves, but it was still visible. "You know, for being someone who just got transported into a different world, I didn't really have that big of a reaction towards anything… Guess that just means that this place isn't much different from Earth, huh?"

Tamazaki then lowered his head and found himself watching the flickering lights that came from the buildings in Planeptune. He found it a little funny since there weren't as many lights on when he was in the nation as there were now. "Something tells me that I should stay away from this nation for the next few days…" Memories of earlier events had begun to flood the teenager's mind, causing him to grit his teeth in response. "Maybe I should go explore those other nations that Compa had told me about."

All Tamazaki had to do was turn his head and he was able to see another one of the four nations of Gamindustri from where he was. The teen could make out a few bright lights from where he was sitting, as well as a cloud of what he believed to be smoke in the air. "I'll start with that one..." Tamazaki pointed towards the nation with a smile. "It certainly looks promising…"

Tamazaki soon felt the strong sensation known as sleep overcome. The teen let out a loud yawn and leaded head against the tree. Tamazaki continued to look at Planeptune until he his eyes had eventually closed, and he drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

 _What I was doing wasn't exactly the best idea as I later realized. I'm just going to mention this now, but I had to sleep under that same tree for 4 nights straight until I was finally able to fall asleep in the bed. To be perfectly honest, there was nothing wrong with sleeping on that hill and under that tree, I felt at peace and the sound of the tree leaves blowing had put my mind to ease._

 _But as you'll understand eventually why I say that sleeping under that tree was a bad idea. This had only happened because I was being careless, but it still could've been avoided if I wasn't being-... Whoops, I'm getting a little too far ahead of myself, aren't I?_

 _Anyway, I slept for the entire night without any disruptions surprisingly. When I woke up, I expected something to have gone terribly wrong, like I would find a knife lodged in me, or I would be blindfolded and tied to a chair, or nature would tell me to go F myself… But no, everything was fine._

 _I waited to wake up a bit before heading out to the nation that was to the left of Planeptune, that nation being the "Land of Black Regality", otherwise known as Lastation._

* * *

"I'm getting a really big industrial vibe coming from this nation." The moment Tamazaki had stepped through the gate that had led him to the main city of Lastation, he saw able to see factories from miles upon miles on end. The blonde haired teenager was able to figure out that the smoke he had seen the previous night was more than smoke, but pollution.

To Tamazaki, Lastation felt like it had more of a steampunk vibe than anything else. While he did feel like the nation was just as technologically as Planeptune, there was something about it that made it feel different from Planeptune altogether.

Tamazaki had noticed that the citizens of the nation were wearing formal clothing while walking around. The streets weren't as busy as Planeptune's streets were, but there were a lot more of vehicles moving up and down the roads than there were people.

"Well, would you look at that, these people really do dress like me." Tamazaki had remembered that when Compa was trying to figure out what nation he was from, she mentioned that he dressed like a Lastation citizen. "So that would mean that this nation is Lastation if I remember correctly…"

Trenton looked up and saw a billboard. On said billboard was what looked to be an ad for some JRPG of some sort, but it seemed like it most of the board was being heavily censored by fake rays of light. "...Y-Yeah, this is definitely Lastation…" The blonde haired male sweatdropped.

As Tamazaki stared up at the sign, he had failed to notice a random civilian walking into his direction. "Woah!" The person had bumped into Tamazaki, who had almost lost his balance and fell onto the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The person apologized to the teen. "I'm in a bit of a hurry, please excuse my rudeness!"

"Oh, no, it's fine actually-"

As Tamazaki was about to forgive the person, they had run off in the opposite direction. Tamazaki stood there for a minute and sighed. "People have manners, but they can't stay and listen for a few seconds…"

* * *

Tamazaki had begun to wander around Lastation not long after he had arrived. Instead of trying to ask for a guide, the teen figured that it would be better if he were to just look around the nation for himself and learn the details about it at a later time.

Along with a large number of factories, Tamazaki had found it weird that there were a lot of weapon shops. Most of these shops had window displays, so Tamazaki was able to get a feel for the type of weapons that were being sold at the shops.

" _Geez, what's with all these weapon shops?_ " Tamazaki had asked himself as he walked by a few more stores. " _Is the crime rate high here or something? Cause if that's the case, then I find it weird that these are meant to be used against other people. Even if it's for self-defense, I still think it's weird._ "

As Tamazaki was thinking to himself, a group of four girls had walked out of one of the many weapons stores and were now about to walk past Tamazaki, who was practically blocking everything out.

" _Hm… Having a weapon to protect myself with doesn't seem all that bad of an idea. It will probably benefit me more than a one night stay at a 4-star hotel._ " Trenton had walked past the girls, not knowing that he was making a weird facial expression as he walked right by them. " _Alright, it's settled! I'm going to buy myself a weapon!"_

After coming to that conclusion Tamazaki had started to reach into his pocket while looking at all of the weapons stores that had surrounded him. The teenager was having a hard time deciding what store he should go to, or what type of weapon he should get. The man didn't want something too small that could easily get lost, but he didn't want something too big that he would have to lug around with him.

" _Maybe I should go to-"_ Tamazaki reached into his pocket and froze for a minute, and then reached into his other pocket. The teenager had then proceeded to check his jacket pockets before he had started to turn very pale.

…

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…

"W-Where did my pouch go?!"


End file.
